Children of the Atom
by The Homing Pigeon
Summary: Charles Xavier and his friends are searching for others like them to help stop Shaw from setting off World War Three. Suitable candidates have to be willing to fight, have a strong moral code... and have survived a nuclear blast? Crossover of Indiana Jones and X-Men: First Class. T for swearing and canon level violence.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Welcome to this newest story of mine. As always, this is just the disclaimer saying that I own none of the characters, places, or recognised ideas. Credit for all of those goes to the people who own them, I just watched Indiana Jones then X-Men back to back and thought up this cross over story.**

 **In order to make it work, the dates for the two films have been moved slightly. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is supposed to happen in 1957, whereas X-Men: First Class happens in 1962. So, in order to make them both fit, I've moved the timing to 1959.**

 **Updates will likely be sporadic, I am writing as I go and with the nature of life I cannot promise to stick to a schedule. I hope you enjoy the story, and I preemptively thank you for any reviews, favourites or follows I get from those who like it.**

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The overly cheerful singing blaring from the television in the adjoining room was at least half drowned out by his frantic scrabbling around for a place to hide from the impending blast. The fireplace drew a blank, and there was no other solid structure to hide in. If this was just an earthquake, Indy would look for a small built in closet to seek use, as the small space would likely be strong enough to withstand the shaking. But no closet or bathroom, no matter how strongly built, would stand against the atomic blast that was going to hit them in under fifteen seconds.

In desperation he dashed to the kitchen, cursing under his breath. A stroke of genius had him opening the fridge and frantically throw everything out of there. A tiny corner of his mind was amazed at the level of detail they had gone to to make this village as lifelike as possible, down to the perishable goods in the fridge. However, if he had had the time to stop and look he would have seen that the dates on most of the food items were passed, and that a huge sticker on the back of the fridge declared it unfit for use due to damage in the structure. He didn't have the luxury to investigate, so the large crack in the back of the fridge remained undiscovered as the six foot man wedged himself into the cramped space.

As the fridge door slammed shut on the count of one, Indy sent out a plea to whatever god may exist to help him. There was too much in his life he wanted to finish, and also he wanted revenge. If he survived this, he was going to find Mac and make him pay for betraying them. The betrayal hurt him deep, more than all the injuries he had sustained in fighting Dovchenko. He hadn't suspected a thing until his old friend had turned his gun on him, and he was sick of being betrayed or let down by those around him. If he survived this, he was going to change.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

Four hours later and Indy half wished he had died in the explosion. After being thrown about in the cramped fridge, and cracking his head a number of times in the process, and having stumbled around in the wasteland that had been a pristine desert for a while, he had finally been found. The soldiers had maintained a distance, forcing him to climb into the back of an empty truck to be driven somewhere. The army base they were in was quite large, and Indy was easily lost in the corridors as he was led through to some kind of decontamination shower. Then, the questions began.

He slumped forward, using his elbows to prop himself up on the table and massaged his temples gingerly. The stress of being kidnapped, shot at, blown up, and now interrogated by the FBI was creating one hell of a migraine. And to add to his predicament he was also trying to ignore the fact that occasionally, if he looked up too quickly, he could actually see two Agent Smith's. Indy tried to surreptitiously breathe slowly and evenly to combat a rising feeling of nausea brought on by his sensitive head. It also seemed to help return the number of people in the room back to normal, instead of their being double. He reluctantly tuned back into the argument that had been blazing above his head whilst he had been composing himself.

"So what am I being charged with? Apart from surviving a nuclear blast?" he said, trying to keep up the cocky facade that was almost as synonymous as the bullwhip was for him.

"Nothing yet, but frankly your association with George McHale calls into question all of your activities, including those during the war," Smith declared. The man looked all together way too gleeful and smug about the whole situation, and Indy would have loved to knock a different look onto the agent's face.

"We will find out the truth you traitor," a voice murmured.

He shook his head to deny the accusation but remained silent, knowing that speaking would continue the argument that he really didn't want to have. He was surprised Ross didn't argue the accusation for him, but he guessed they were both tired of the conversation going round in circles.

With a start Indy realised that he had tuned out again, and the other three had seemed to reach some kind of ending to the meeting. Both of the suits were preparing to leave and were no longer bothering to look down their noses at him. All the files had been collected and were tucked into the matching briefcases, which were grasped firmly in left hands and carried from the room. A sudden impact on his shoulder had Indy jumping violently, which jarred his already tender head. The resulting wince that Indy failed to hide had the hand quickly retreating from his shoulder.

"Sorry Indy, I thought you heard me," Colonel Ross apologised from his seat next to him.

"I was a bit lost in thought," Indy replied ruefully.

"I'll take you to the train station and get you a ticket home, I guess the Russians didn't think to grab your wallet at the same time as grabbing you," the military man chuckled.

"Thanks Bob," Indy swayed slightly as he stood. "I don't think I'll bother heading back to the digsite in Mexico, the guys can do well enough without me. Sleeping in my own house sounds amazing."

"You're going to need it, things aren't going to be easy for a while."

"You can say that again, I bet those two are going to love digging through my files," Indy yawned.

"I didn't say anything," Ross replied, a hint of worry in his voice.

The archaeologist stopped and stared at his friend. "I definitely need sleep if I'm hearing voices."

"You don't want anyone to think you're crazy," Ross chuckled as he led the way out of the maze of corridors to the car park.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

 **Four Months Later**

The multitude of voices that reverberated through his skull were both familiar and completely alien. English, French, and Hindi fought alongside hundreds of other languages scattered across the globe in their bid to be heard. Each person and their personal thoughts were revealed to him, some were experiencing the happiest moments of their lives, some their worst. And the billions of others just going about their daily lives. The most bizarre was hearing the undefined thoughts of babies literally just being born, their pain and fear radiating out.

With no small feat of skill he managed to filter out the mutants from the humans, and then slowly those individuals that could be potential recruits to their team. If he hadn't been focusing on searching for people to help them Charles would have happily lingered to bask in the glorious feeling that they weren't alone.

Erik, Raven, and Hank all hovered nearby, anxiously awaiting news. The scientist used most of his attention on focusing on his brain child Cerebro, making sure nothing was amiss. Erik and Raven watched the joyful features of their friend for any changes, both for safety and also out of curiosity. The sudden rattling of the typewriting component of Cerebro bursting into life startled them slightly, and Raven grinned ruefully.

"There's dozens of names and locations coming out," Hank said in surprise as the machine kept whirring and printing.

The last few days had been bizarre for all of them. For Hank, finding people who didn't judge him was liberating, but all of them were amazed at how many more of them there werearly out there. And, how diverse their mutations were. Erik still shuddered at the feeling of Charles having been in his head when they were underwater.

After half an hour Charles sighed and slumped a little in the Cerebro cradle to pull his head free. The brain scanner stopped flicking the needles, and the typewriter fell silent. Hank quickly flitted around and turned all the dials and switches to shut the machine down.

"Are you alright, Charles?" Erik asked as he offered an arm for support.

"I'm fine, just tired and a little overwhelmed," he replied.

"You found quite a few people," Hank tore the long sheet of paper from the roll and held it up.

"That's not even the start of the list," Charles smiled. "We are far from alone."

"So who are these?" Raven peered over Hank's shoulder at the list, not noticing the slight blush that crept up his cheeks. Charles didn't either, too lost was he in the elation of their discovery, but Erik did, and he hid his smirk at the sight.

"A few promising faces to start off with, we might want to come back and look for more at a later date," Charles explained. "I tried to narrow down the list to those that felt like they would help us with our cause, or would enjoy some help or company."

For the first few trips they stuck to the initial list Charles generated. Raven laughed as Erik and Charles argued the merits of approaching a stripper as a potential teammate, and Hank couldn't stop talking about the taxi driver who could change his skin. None of them could deny the benefits of the offensive capabilities the criminal brought, but they all agreed to keep an eye on him the most. And Erik personally didn't see why they needed someone who could scream.

But after a few rebuffs, most noticeably the Canadian man with a penchant for cigars, and a young homeless teen with incredible speed, they were forced back to Cerebro. Although they half wondered if they needed any more in their team, none of them argued about going back and exploring the diversity of their newly discovered species.

Without a pause Charles stepped into the cradle in the centre and Hank flicked the switches to bring Cerebro to life. The machine started to hum and tapped out lines of information without a pause like last time, as Charles was ready for the feeling. Raven made herself comfy in the corner, watching Hank as he kept an eye on all the various parts of the machine. Erik stood to one side, a bit of an impatient look on his face. They had been in there for half an hour last time, and there was little to do inside of the installation apart from watch Charles or Hank.

Suddenly the tranquillity was shattered as Charles let out a pained cry, his body seizing up and his face contorting into a pained grimace. It looked like he would have ripped Cerebro from his head, if his hands hadn't been gripping the rail so hard his knuckles turned white.

"Hank turn it off!" Raven shouted as she lunged towards Charles. Although she wanted to help, her hands came up short as she daren't touch her friend whilst his mind was in the machine.

The scientist didn't react quick enough to shut Cerebro down though. Sparks started to jump from where the cables joined the cap, smoke started to billow from the back of the monitors, and then a panel blew out from the bank of switches.

With the room dropped into pitch black no one could see what state Charles was in. After a lot of thumping, muffled cursing, and coughing on smoke someone finally reached the correct floor panels that lifted. As soon as the door was open the room was flooded with natural light, and three of them looked around in confusion.

Charles was slumped onto his knees, head bowed and hands still gripping tight to the rail. Raven tripped over to sit in front of him, and started to gently tap his face. Erik meanwhile pried his hands from the rail and heaved the man into his arms. With Charles safely held he heaved himself to his feet and gingerly walked through the gloom to the daylight outside.

Hank followed after first diverting to claim the much smaller piece of paper that only contained a dozen or so names. Once outside Hank grimaced at the discolouration caused by the smoke, which blurred some of the coordinates.

"What happened in there?" Raven asked Hank angrily. At first Hank shrank back and stammered out nonsense, until he realised she wasn't angry at him, just the situation. It was obvious she was worried for the unconscious man more and didn't actually blame him.

"It wasn't Cerebro, everything was working within safe parameters," Hank managed to say nervously. "Whatever went wrong it came from Charles. If I had to guess, it looked like some kind of energy surge."

"Charles, wake up," Erik laid the man down flat on the grass and repeated what Raven had been doing. However his attempts to rouse the man were a little more forceful than Raven's had been.

After a tense minute where the three of them couldn't peel their eyes from the telepath, they were rewarded with Charles suddenly convulsing and jolting awake. At first he seemed quite confused and unaware of where he was when he gazed around. All three of them breathed silent sighs of relief when the absent look in his eyes faded and recognition flashed as he made eye contact with them.

"What happened?" Erik asked.

"You broke Cerebro," Hank said in a half accusatory, half concerned tone. As he looked over to the installation the other three mimicked him, and Charles winced at the memory.

"We need to go," was all Charles said in reply as he struggled to sit up.

"Woah, you are in no fit state to go anywhere," Raven tried to push him back down.

"This is important," Charles fought back and managed to shrug Raven off to sit upright on his own.

"Is it Shaw?" Hank asked, worriedly looking back at Cerebro, which was still emitting smoke from the open doorway. Although he had not been at the encounter himself, he had heard from the others about the female telepath that accompanied their enemy. There might be more than the four of them in the world, but Hank wasn't sure that there would be more than two telepaths in the world. And if she could impact Cerebro from miles away then perhaps he shouldn't fix the machine, just in case.

"No, there's someone who needs our help," Charles explained as he finally gained his feet. The man quickly shook his head to clear his thoughts, and gingerly rubbed his fingers through his hair to make sure it hadn't been burnt off.

"We don't have time to take in strays, Charles," Erik said sadly but firmly.

It didn't take a mind reader to know that Erik wasn't being heartless, but for the greater good they couldn't waste time on helping a complete stranger. The threat of Shaw forced them to prioritise: help one of their own, or save the world and every mutant?

"This one is different, he can help but only if we help him," Charles insisted.

"Okay, group vote," Erik decided. "What do we do?"

"Charles is incredibly strong, if there's someone out there who can feel him searching, and overpower him, then they could be really useful," Raven surmised.

"Worst that happens is they don't join us, we can at least bring them here to safety and help them after," Hank tried to be diplomatic.

"You know my vote," Charles said, still pale and subdued from his encounter.

"So, where are we going?" Raven asked, already sold on the idea.

"Marshall College," Hank looked at the last line of information on the sheet. "Some student called Henry Jones, Junior."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Six hours of driving later and Erik stared around the teeming campus. Of the four of them he was pretty sure he was the one who felt the most uncomfortable as they wandered across the lawns. Hank seemed to relish being amongst other intellectuals, whilst Charles blended in like he should either be a mature student or a lecturer himself. Raven had an exasperated look on her face that told of her many trips with her friend to educational places, but she again was the right age to blend in, even if her attire was different to the greasers, lettermen, and bookish teens. But the German born man had nothing in common with the teens and academics around them, and he was a good twenty years older than some of them.

What promised to be an easy trip quickly became apparent that nothing was ever easy. Their initial plan had been to stroll up to the administration department, spin some tail about being friends or relations and find out where he lived through that. However, even their half baked plan, that relied on a bit of mental manipulation by Charles, fell through immediately.

" _Professor_ Jones isn't here anymore?" Charles repeated the receptionists statement.

"He's on a sabbatical," she said shortly.

"I desperately need to talk to him, I'm a recently graduated doctor myself and some of my research would be greatly advanced with some of his help," Charles wheedled.

It seemed that his attempts at persuasion were working, as the receptionist started to hesitate. "Well he won't be on campus, and he might not even be in the US anymore. That man does love to travel, I suppose it comes with his job."

"If he's at home then perfect, if he isn't then I'll just have to wait until his sabbatical is over. If you wouldn't mind giving me his address? I'd be incredibly grateful," he smiled charmingly at her.

Her indecisiveness seemed to cease at the smile directed at her, and the woman quickly flicked through a file and jotted down a few lines of information. "I'm not sure whether he will be bothered about work related business, rumour has it his sabbatical was enforced, stress reduced illness apparently."

"Thank you ever so much, hopefully I will see you again soon," Charles said gratefully and beat a hasty retreat, the sound of chattering and giggling following him.

"So how much of that was mind tricks, and how much was pure emotional blackmail?" Erik asked as Xavier returned to the group who had been loitering just outside of reception.

"I don't know what you are on about," Charles said mildly, "we just had a nice conversation."

Raven just snorted and snatched the piece of paper from his hand.

"Stress induced leave? Are we sure we want to carry on searching for this guy?" Erik asked.

"His house is only a few streets away," Hank pointed out when he saw the writing, which seemed to settle the matter with the other two.

Although the trip only took five minutes in the car, and half of that was caused by searching for the right road, they still drove so as to have the car nearby and ready. They could tell something was wrong before they reached the right house, which made parking nearby all the more easy. More houses than would ever be normal were up for sale, and few people seemed to be lingering in the road. Amongst the neatly kept lawns and shiny cars outside every other single house, only one house had an overgrown and brown lawn. The car out front was starting to look a little dusty from lack of use and lack of washing. Every single window had its curtains drawn, and not one was open to allow the gentle summer breeze to float through.

The four of them looked at each other a little uneasily, but through unsaid words they moved as one from the curb up the garden path.

"You're here to talk to the madman?" They had barely made it halfway towards the front door when a voice behind them interrupted their progress.

"What?" Erik said. He turned around to look at who had addressed them, causing Hank and Raven to step to one side to allow all four of them a better view.

Two kids on bikes had stopped to stare at them, and the lack of similarities suggested they were friends rather than brothers.

"The man who lives there, he's crazy my mum said," the blond haired one spoke again. Hank and Raven exchanged worried glances.

"Mine said he disappeared for a bit and came back mad," the second confirmed. "He never comes out, and no one ever sees him."

"You can hear shouting sometimes, things being smashed," the more talkative of the two carried on. "You come to take him away?"

"Not exactly, we're friends of his," Erik fudged.

"He doesn't have friends, there's only this one old guy who comes and sees him to bring him food," the second kid explained.

"If you do take him away are you going to cut his head open to figure out why he went crazy?"

It was an innocent question, brought on by a child's fascination with dissection and figuring out how the world works. However, it was the wrong thing to say.

"Head home. Now," Erik said coldly. And to reinforce his command he gave their bikes a nudge.

The two kids yelped in shock as their bikes jolted forward a metre without them even moving their feet. They stared at Erik and then at their bikes in confusion and fear. Erik's facial expression didn't change, and the kids nervously followed his advice under his cold, hard glare.

"Erik," Charles said disapprovingly as the two kids sped away home.

"What? You how I feel about experimentation," Erik retorted.

"Yes, but they can't read minds, they were just being curious," Charles sighed.

But it was an argument neither of them would win, so they both silently agreed to drop it and carried on to the front door. Whilst Charles knocked on the front door, Raven and Hank kept sending nervous glances around the neighbourhood behind them, wary of being watched. They stood for five minutes, knocking occasionally, before Erik got bored.

"Either he isn't here, or he has no interest in answering us," he snapped and waved his hand.

The metallic clicking told the others what he had done. Without a pause he pushed the newly unlocked door open and strode in.

"Erik," Charles hissed, following him without hesitation despite his whispered protestations about breaking and entering.

Inside the house was dull compared to the bright sunshine outside. Although they had seen that the curtains on each window had been shut whilst they were outside, inside they could see that blankets were also hung over the rails of some, deepening the gloom. Dust covered a few surfaces, with bare patches showing where some items were missing.

"What even are half of these things?"Raven asked as she stopped to inspect a curiously painted pottery vase. The uneven finish and thumbprints suggested that it had been handmade, and not by someone for commercial ends.

"No idea, all of this stuff looks old and handmade though," Hank gestured to a wooden cross hanging from a wall nearby.

"Does it matter? We need to find this guy and get back to the others," Erik brought their attention back to the task at hand.

The house was open plan, with the curtains covering the large windows. The entrance hall led off towards a study of sorts with over a hundred books on shelves. From the covers Charles noted they were all history related, either on languages, art, cultures, or archaeology. Again, a few spaces on the shelves hinted at more trinkets being missing for some reason. The study led through to a kitchen, then a dining room, back round to a lounge area and finally back into the hall.

However as soon as they started to climb the stairs it was as if the building revolted against them. The very foundations seemed to rattle, and dust started to trickle from the edges of photo frames and from the ceiling.

"What's going on?" Hank asked as he glanced around.

"I thought this guy was another telepath?" Raven asked.

"Back downstairs, now," Charles said hurriedly.

Before they could start to move, loud cracking started to sound from beneath their feet and the wooden boards bowed ominously. Charles and Erik were forced to leap after the other two who reached the hall despite the stairs breaking under their feet.

"What is going on?" Erik hissed.

"It's his mutation, I don't know how to explain it but it's still changing, he has no control over it," Charles explained, his eyes pinned on a specific point of the ceiling. Erik followed his line of sight and guessed that was where the mysterious Professor Jones was hiding.

"But he's got to be my age at least, how has he not got control over it?" Erik knew from experience that after a few years you could control what you wanted to do.

"He's only had this for the last four months," Charles explained.

"How has that happened?" Hank stared at Charles in amazement.

Before the telepath could find out, all four of them were sent to their knees in pain.

 ** _'Get out of my head!'_** a rough voice bellowed into their minds.

The lights around them started to flicker madly, turning on and off in sporadic spurts. The floor continued to vibrate, and suddenly photo frames on the walls started to fly across the room at them.

Raven and Hank shouted in alarm and ducked, their powers were no use against flying objects. Erik quickly stuck his hand out and sent any metal object flying away from them again. thankfully, all the picture frames had some kind of metal inside them and were sent crashing back to the walls they came from. However the shards of glass that then came back at them he couldn't stop. Soon all four of them were huddled on the floor whilst a hurricane of glass whirled dangerously above their heads, accompanied by the light display.

"Still think this guy can help?" Erik called over to Charles, his voice only just making it over the rumbling and whistling going on around them.

 _'Professor Jones, my name is Charles Xavier and these are my friends Erik Lensherr, Raven, and Hank McCoy,'_ all three of the other mutants heard Charles' broadcast. _'We aren't here to harm you. We are like you, in a way, and want to help you make sense of your powers.'_

 ** _'That's not all. You want to use me, force me to fight,'_** the voice roared back, making them all instinctively clap their hands to their ears. Only Charles managed to not do it, purely from his own experiences as a telepath. **  
**

 _'It's true, we need your help in return. But we aren't going to use you,'_ Xavier scrabbled to placate the man. _'Another like us is going to try to start World War three, and we are the only ones who can stop him. We won't make you join us, but at the very least if you come with us we can try and help you gain control of your powers.'_

Raven suddenly let out a gasp of pain, and looked at the others. Hank had the same look on his face that she was carrying, whilst Erik was looking angry but resigned. Only Charles looked unaffected, and Raven had to ask. "Is he in your head too?"

"He's not as subtle as Charles is, nor as considerate," Erik bit out.

"I've had the experience, and telepathy was a natural mutation for me," Charles tried to apologise for the man.

However despite Charles' apparently calm facade he breathed just as much of a sigh of relief when they felt the stranger's mind leaving theirs. As they gingerly looked up they could see that the whirlwind of deadly glass was slowing down, and the larger chunks were starting to fall out of the air. The lights flickered for a few more seconds before they remained off, and the final bits of glass fell like hail to the finally still ground. Charles was the first to his feet, with the other three helping each other up.

"Thanks for the hand," Erik murmured jokingly.

However he too stopped paying attention to the other three around him when he saw what Charles was staring at.

At the top of the stairs, stood the elusive Henry Jones Junior.

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 **A/N: Going to see how many chapters I can write today before I have to go back to work, thanks to the supporting reviews already by Melikalilly and edboy4926. And you followers/favouriters, all six of you rock!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Upon reflection Raven wasn't sure who was more surprised by the others, them or the Professor. The four of them had set out earlier in the day expecting to be picking up another late teen mutant with powers similar to her oldest friend's. Then they discovered that actually they were looking for an adult, a seasoned lecturer from Marshall College. And then they came face to face with a man in his fifties, with newly fledged powers. Before, Raven had been annoyed that it had only been Erik and Charles that had gone to recruit the new team mates, but this time she wished she had stayed back at the base with the four new team members.

It had been interesting to meet new team members, and the powers they had control over. Even Havok, who had been found in willing solitary confinement in prison and refused to relax around the team, seemed safer company than this man. If even Erik and Charles couldn't stop him, then what would happen if they angered him again.

Although he was in his mid or late fifties, this man was over six foot tall with grey hair. A large scar on his chin gave him a more fearsome look, that seemed at odds with his soft hazel eyes. The man seemed to be a walking contradiction, a college lecturer dressed in formal but comfortable clothing, with the ability to shred a house in seconds?

 _'Sorry, I'll try not to lose my temper again, it's just difficult to control,'_ the rough voice, but in a much gentler tone, whispered through her mind.

Raven dipped her head apologetically, and look to Charles as a hint to the man.

"So I suppose introductions should be in order," Charles started.

"I know who you are," Henry Jones said. "And I suppose you already know my name too. But please call me Indiana."

"It would be best for everyone if we start at the beginning, verbal discussions are much more wholesome than mental ones," the most practised telepath suggested.

Indy jumped down the rickety stairs, easily avoiding those that had cracked or given way completely. Without a care for the broken glass he gestured through to the kitchen and started rummaging through the cupboards for cups and drinks. Charles and Raven sat at the dining room table and occupied themselves in looking at some of the nearby antiques, whilst Erik lounged against a wall. Hank silently offered a hand, and helped by ferrying various bits to the table. Indy soon followed with the tea and coffee.

"We may as well go first, seeing as you already seem to know a lot of our story," Raven broke the tense silence.

Erik started the story, having the earliest information on Shaw and his early work. Raven wasn't the only one to notice that the cups rattled slightly as Erik explained what happened in the camps. Taking the hint, Charles quickly took over and explained what Agent MacTaggart had seen, and what they guessed Shaw was attempting to do.

"The thing is, why are they trying to put pressure on Russia by putting nuclear weapons in Turkey?" Hank spoke up. "He has nothing to gain from a war."

"Yes he does," Indy said, causing the four to look at him in surprise.

"How do you know," Raven asked.

"You studied genetics, and how humans evolved? Your thesis was exploring how the human race could evolve further?" Indy asked, not really looking for confirmation as he already knew the answers. "Your conclusion was that energy would cause it."

"It was, and how new forms of energy we were creating might open the possibility of mutation," Raven finished. She shrugged at Hank's stare, "he's read it to me so many times I can remember most of it."

"Well it isn't just a theory," the oldest man at the table revealed. "It's how I got my powers."

And the three of them then sat quietly as the man told his tale. Raven would have almost thought the man had made it all up, the tales of Russians, aliens, double agents, and explosions in the desert. "You survived a nuclear blast in a _fridge_?"

"Sounds less glamorous when you focus on that point," Indy rubbed his neck ruefully. "But it worked, mostly."

"However it triggered a mutation," Charles finished.

"Well I certainly couldn't read minds or break things from a distance before the Russians kidnapped me."

"I wonder if the radiation caused the mutation completely, or whether you had genes lying dormant that it activated?" Charles wondered aloud.

"What else can you do?" Erik asked curiously.

"Well I read your minds before you reached the front door, I keep moving things, using electricity is a nightmare, I've set fire to things... And apparently I turned invisible once," Indy summarised.

"No wonder you've hidden yourself away," Hank said in surprise.

"If I can keep calm, avoid other people, then I can normally go a day without something happening."

"Perhaps it's better if you stay here," Raven suggested. "We're going to be in the middle of a fight that's going to be stressful."

"But you promised you could help," Indy protested, a very obvious hint of panic in his voice.

"What sets off your powers?" Charles asked curiously.

"I'm not sure, as I never end up doing the same thing twice in a row. The only constant is the hearing other people's thoughts," Indy replied.

"My theory, and it is only a theory at this point, is that your mutation acts differently to ours because of the fact you weren't born with it. Ours is built into our DNA, but yours was forced into it. Telepathy is probably your primary power, but because your DNA was blitzed by the nuclear radiation other genes were affected. We still don't know how much of our DNA is different to an average human, and you might be the first with more than one gene activated. Either way, if we can help you control the telepathy then it might calm your other abilities."

"We can't wait here until Indy learns control though," Erik said as the voice of reason.

"And I can't leave the house, it never ends well," Indy said morosely.

"I have an idea," Charles spoke up. "I can help shield your mind until we are at the CIA base, and then at least you will only have to deal with thirty or so minds nearby. We can work on teaching you the same methods as we go."

"I'm game," the archaeologist said happily. "Let me just go and get some stuff."

Hank and Charles quickly washed up and put everything away as best they could. They were expecting to wait for a while as the professor packed half his office into a suitcase, but five minutes later he was back, a small bag at his side.

"What's with the clothes?" Raven asked.

Indy had lost the domestic look and had changed into thick leather boots, sturdy brown trousers, a cream shirt, leather jacket, and brown fedora.

"I'm not going to go traipsing about in my college clothes," Indy explained as he slid his hat onto his head. "It might not be of use against telepaths and teleporters, but I've got my gun in case."

"You own a gun?" Raven said in surprise.

"Most people who served in the war do," Erik said.

"How do you know he served?" it was Charles' turn to be surprised.

"He wasn't surprised by the Nazis and what they did," the German said shortly.

"I was OSS, spent quite a bit of the war undercover or behind enemy lines," Indy said shortly. "We weren't supposed to keep our guns, but most of us did."

"Just keep it away from the others," Charles declared.

Hank took the front passenger seat whilst Erik took the wheel. Indy quickly dropped his bag in the boot and took a seat in the back. Charles took the middle seat in order to work with their newest recruit as they drove, whilst giving Raven the window seat.

"Xavier, the voices," Indy said quietly.

"Blocking out the light in your house helped?" Charles asked.

"If I couldn't see people then it became easier to ignore them," Indy explained.

"Then close your eyes, and just listen to me," Indy did as he was told. "Don't fight me."

"I'll try not to," he grinned slightly and listened for more instructions.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

Raven had listened to Charles trying to explain his powers to her many times in the past, the words he used had become more technical as they had grown. As kids they had made games of trying to teach each other what they did, and as they got older his curiosity about his abilities had lead to his studies. And apparently, although Indy wasn't a geneticist or scientist, he was educated and could grasp the concepts Charles was trying to describe.

At first Indy seemed tense and only half paid attention to Charles, focusing instead on his worry of the voices breaking his peace. But as they drove he slowly relaxed, and Raven guessed that Charles' protection was working. However he only completely relaxed in his seat when they had left the town far behind, and presumably the number of voices dropped down to only a few around them.

"So what's at this CIA place we're heading to?" Indy asked, trying to follow Charles' advice about not delving for the answers himself.

"A few agents doing research on some random projects, mostly obscure branches of science. The guy in charge hasn't been taken seriously until now, so his facility is mostly deserted," Erik surmised.

"Hank has a few interesting projects," Raven started.

"Cerebro?" Indy remembered the odd name.

"Yes, and a prototype jet," Hank said proudly.

"And the rest of the team is there," Raven added. "Do we think we have enough people now?"

"Probably, we need to start training to see whether it'll be enough."

"I hope so, I have to admit I'm not sure how long it would take to fix Cerebro," Hank admitted.

"It can't be that hard to fix," Erik said.

"It depends what is broken, if I have to strip the wiring out of the tower and replace it then that could take three days at least, and if I have to fix the cap part..."

"So basically who we have is what we have to work with, so no alienating anyone."

"How long do you think we'll last without a fight?" Raven chuckled.

"Just don't read Alex's mind, I think he'll be as prickly as Erik is about having company in his head," Charles warned their newest telepath.

However despite his warning there was no reply from Indy. Charles turned from Raven to look at the man and was surprised to see he had fallen asleep in the brief minute in which they hadn't been talking.

"Wonder how long he'd been awake for, to fall asleep that quickly," Erik asked as he glanced back using the mirror.

"Days probably, although he couldn't make the shields I use he was on the way to figuring out some kind of defenses from the voices. However he had learnt that staying awake for as long as possible helped him not to see other people's dreams. Sleeping is dangerous," Charles said from experience.

"I might be able to rig something to help with that, once we get back to base I can use you to test anything I invent," Hank looked to Charles for his assistance.

"That'll keep you happy for a bit," Raven smiled.

"I might as well make equipment for everyone," Hank said happily.

"Make some uniforms too, we may as well look like a team when we face Shaw," Erik threw in his suggestion.

"Just not figure hugging stuff," Charles laughed.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

"There's nothing on radar, nothing on the scope?" Emma asked sharply.

"Nyet," Azazel answered shortly.

"Then we have a problem," she sighed and left the control room.

Smoothly she swayed through a small office room, and flicked a switched hidden in a box.

"Isn't beautiful my love, the reason we exist. We are all children of the atom," Sebastian said in awe.

It hadn't taken a few attempts for Shaw to convince her she was safe to enter this mirrored room, and now she happily stared at the unguarded reactor core.

"We have a problem," she cut into his lyrical waxing. "The telepath, I shouldn't be able to feel him at this distance, but it's like his reach has been amplified."

Shaw looked at her passively, so she persevered. "They're recruiting."

"You head on to Russia, I'll handle the telepath," Shaw said without hesitation.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Cassidy was bored. Angel, the smoking hot stripper, was next door and he was dying to get to know her. However he knew she was miles out of his league, and he was no good at wooing the ladies. There was little to do to keep himself occupied outside of the communal room. So he heaved himself out of his bed and wandered down the corridor, hoping to find more than one person.

He was in luck, as Darwin and Angel were there. Darwin had a well thumbed book out on his lap while Angel was watching the fish with a bored expression.

"So where's Alex?" Cassidy asked.

"In his room, I think he's a bit lost with all this freedom," Darwin said as he flicked over the page.

"You get on well with him," Angel observed.

"We've had closer lifestyles than some," Darwin shrugged.

"Prison life and taxi driving, I can see the link," Cassidy snickered.

He was rewarded with a quiet chuckle from Angel, which bolstered his confidence. "So does anyone know where the other four went?"

"No idea, but they left in a hurry," chipped in Darwin.

"I think they went to find a new recruit, I heard them talking about how long the drive would be, and whether they could catch him at the college," Angel supplied.

"A college kid? Well they're going to have fun with us," Cassidy couldn't wait to see who the new arrival was.

"He, or she," Darwin dipped his head in apology to Angel's protest, "could get on well with Hank and Xavier at least."

"Or they might be a bruiser like Alex," Angel countered.

"What might be a bruiser like me?" said the man in question as he walked through the door.

"The Professor and the others went on a recruitment drive, to a college," he quickly answered to the ex-convict.

It wasn't that he was scared of Alex, he knew he could incapacitate the man before he got close enough to Cassidy to actually punch him in the face. But he certainly was a long way from being happy to be alone with him.

No one seemed to pick up on his unease though, and Alex happily slumped onto a spare sofa. "Well it'll be interesting to see who it is when they turn up."

"Hopefully won't be long, they said it'd take them about six hours to get there," Angel checked the clock. "So they could be back in an hour or so."

"Wonder what their skill is," Darwin said out loud.

"Well we don't even know each others skills," Cassidy said in surprise.

The way that everyone looked at each other showed how he wasn't the only one to just realise that. "Do we fancy sharing now?"

"May as well wait for the new guy," Alex shrugged.

"Or girl," Angel interjected.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

They carried on making small talk for the rest of the hour, until the sound of slamming doors alerted them to the arrival of new people into their wing. The bonus of working for the government was that they were pretty much left alone, apart from a few agents strolling around on guard duty. So whenever they could hear footsteps, they knew the people were heading their way. The four of them looked eagerly at each other, but tried to act nonchalant when the door opened.

"Sorry we disappeared off," Charles said as him and Erik poked their heads around the door. "Ah you're all here."

"Pot luck," Alex replied.

"May as well introduce you now then," Charles continued and moved to one side through the door.

Alex had to bite his tongue as the newcomer was revealed. A grey haired man, taller than even Erik, stood in the doorway with a hat under one arm and a bag in the other.

"You're a professor then?" Darwin surmised.

"Well I'm hardly the right age to be a student," the man replied.

"Professor Henry 'Indiana' Jones," Charles introduced. "Cassidy, Angel, Darwin."

"So what did you teach gramps?" Alex asked.

"It's Indiana," Indy said mildly, "and I lectured on archaeology."

"What's that?" Cassidy asked.

"Digging up ancient civilizations," Indy sighed.

"Fun," Cassidy replied.

"Come on, I'll show you your room," Charles offered and the two of them disappeared again.

"Well he's gonna be a buzz kill," Cassidy muttered.

"I think he'll surprise you," Raven chuckled.

"He's surprising," Hank agreed noncommittally.

"What's his power?" Alex asked curiously.

"It's his choice to tell you," Erik cut in from where he had headed to the bar.

The no-longer oldest mutant spent a few hours chatting and laughing with the new recruits. It had reached four in the afternoon by the time Charles reappeared and left with Erik. Once again the rest were left in the dark about where they were going, but Raven assured them they were done with recruiting.

In the evening food was brought to their communal room and the few of them that had wandered off, Darwin had gone to read whilst Hank was working on something and Angel went to her room, came back again. It was only as they all sat around in the chairs did Raven look up and notice something.

"Did anyone tell Indy to come here for food?" she checked.

"Charles seemed to do most of the introduction tour," Hank said as he looked up.

"We haven't seen him since he arrived," shrugged Alex as he speared a lump of chicken.

"I'll go get him," Raven put her food down and stood. "Anyone touch my food and I'll make you regret it."

Raven quickly slipped through a smaller door and padded down the plain silver corridor. Off each side were a number of doors, as dull as the corridor they were built into. There had been twenty rooms in total, an obvious sign that this had been more designed as conference accommodation for professionals rather than a base for teens. But a few of the occupants had tried to spruce the corridor up by personalizing their doors, Angel had been the first to get a pen and drew a pair of wings onto her door. Cassidy had followed with a fish on his, Alex had just written his name, and then surprised them all with a fairly decent sketch of Darwin for the taxi driver's door. They had started filling the rooms up from the start of the corridor down, and they had been at an even number so it was fifty fifty whether Raven would get the right room or not.

Luck was on her side, as the first door she tried was answered after a few seconds. Once again she was reminded of how much taller the man was, as he towered over her. Without the hat it was slightly less intimidating though.

"Can I help you?" Indy asked politely.

"There's food in the common room if you want it, chicken stew," Raven explained.

"Who's there?"

"All of us apart from Charles and Erik," it was an easier way of listing everyone Raven decided.

"I probably shouldn't," Indy moved to shut the door.

"You need food, and you're going to be working with us so you might as well get used to us," she quickly argued before he could shut the door.

The man hesitated for a few seconds before nodding silently and following her down the corridor again. The chatter in the room dropped when they rejoined the others, but Darwin and Hank intentionally picked up their talk about New York again quickly. Raven grabbed an extra plate of food whilst Indy pulled across a spare chair to join the loose circle of sofas that they had built.

Indy remained quiet and on the outskirts of the conversation for the majority of the meal, only making polite conversation when he was directly addressed. Part of it was the age gap, he was old enough to theoretically be their grandfather as Summers had said. However he had been on digs and field trips with students before and had easily made conversation with them before. The main reason he was unwilling to relax was the fear of losing what little control Charles had taught him. Without the man to act as his shield, Indy was focusing on not letting his mind wander which would undoubtedly end badly. However, even if he wasn't relaxed it seemed that the others had and were happy to leave him be.

"So if we work for the government then we should have codenames," Raven said gleefully. The others seemed quite eager about that idea, so she started the ball rolling, "I'm going to be called Mystique."

"Damn I wanted to be called Mystique," Cassidy groaned.

"Well tough I called it. And I'm way more mysterious than you," she said, and quickly morphed to look like the exact replica of Cassidy.

All of them, Indy too after he had been sucked into the conversation, started in amazement of her skill.

Raven swapped back to her original form and bobbed her head at their applause. "Darwin, what about you?"

"Well, Darwin is already my nickname, and it kind of fits," he quickly looked around and got up. "Watch this."

And without hesitation he stuck his head into the fish tank. They all cheered, Indy politely clapped, as he breathed water.

"What about you?" Darwin pointed at Cassidy.

"I'm going to be... Banshee," he declared.

"Why do you want to be named after a wailing spirit?" Alex asked.

It was Banshee's turn to look around, until he focussed on the row of glasses in front of him. "You might want to cover your ears."

Unlike Darwin and Mystique, Banshee proved to be less skilled and instead of shattering the glasses he shattered the actual window. However the rest of them cheered so Indy politely clapped. In his youth he probably would have been just as enthusiastic, and as it was he was impressed with what Banshee could do purely with his voice.

"You're next," Banshee points at Angel.

"Well Angel was my stage name," Angel said as she stands and gives a flirtatious twirl, causing Hank to choke as he tried to take a sip of his drink. "And it fits kinda."

"You can fly?" Banshee almost yelps in excitement.

"Yep," Angel happily revealed that her wing tattoos were actually hidden wings, and briefly hovers a foot from the floor. Then proceeded to show off a slightly less sweet trick she had.

"What's your name?" Angel looks at Hank.

"Big Foot," Alex quips before Hank could speak for himself.

Indy immediately saw how the comment caused Hank to sink in on himself. He personally hadn't had to deal with his mutation for long, only a matter of months, but it had been hell trying to act normal around his old colleagues. Hank might look normal on the outside, but Indy didn't know exactly what the genius' mutation was. Obviously something he wasn't proud of it like Angel was, and Indy immediately leapt to his defence, however he was beaten to it.

"Well you know what they say about people with big feet, and yours look quite small," Mystique gave Alex a scornful look.

Indy's chuckle drew their attention to him, and Alex quickly jumped on the distraction to avoid any more humiliation. "So, Gramps, what can you do?"

"It's Indiana," the man insisted for the second time. "And I'm not really sure."

"How can you not be sure?" Banshee asked.

"I've not had my mutation long," Indy tried to be evasive.

"What, is it super quick ageing," Alex snickered again.

"I can see why you ended up in solitary the first time," the oldest man said, then immediately regretted it.

"What did you say?" the smirk was gone from Alex's face.

"Sorry, I'm not fully in control yet," Indy closed his eyes and rubbed them tiredly. The five hour nap in the car had done wonders, but he still felt tired from concentrating.

"You're a telepath too, like the professor?" Angel realised.

"Not a trained one, I've only had it for four months," he explained. "It tends to bleed through and cause other side effects. I almost shredded these guys with flying glass when they came to get me."

"Psycho would suit you," Alex returned to the conversation, a little more respectfully than before.

"I have gone by too many names to have a new one, I'm sticking with Indiana," he asserted. "Alex, what can you do?"

"It's not... I can't do it here," he blustered.

"Can you do it out there?" Darwin asked.

Without an easy way out Alex had to demonstrate his skill. Which didn't go half as well as they were hoping, and one of the beams almost cut through the crowd of mutants that were lingering near the window. Indy had hung back, a bad feeling telling him that things were not going to go well. The sudden screams of the five by the window had him reacting instinctively. Seconds later he was clutching his head in pain, whilst the others rolled on the floor and groaned from the impact. However, they were safely away from the smoking streak that had been carved into the wall where they had been standing.

"Thanks Indy," Mystique looked at the space where they had been standing.

"It seems that is a pretty reliable skill," he said as the headache started to recede.

"Your mutation causes you pain when you use it?" Hank asked as he watched from his space sitting on the floor.

"Yeah, and as I can't control it I can have a headache all day," Indy winced. "If you guys don't mind I'm heading back to my room. Try not to slice each other in half."

Although he had his lecturing voice on, the lopsided grin let them know he was joking, and the six gave him a much friendlier farewell than the greeting he received to start with.

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, the first three chapters were all things I had knocking around my head for the last couple of years. From here on out we are in uncharted waters, how fun is that! Thanks again for all the reads, reviews, favourites, and follows.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"We've got a lead on Shaw, we are going to go and try and catch him without this turning into a fight," Charles announced to the assembled group at breakfast the next day.

The chaos from the impromptu party had been cleared away, although the statue was still in half and there were deep gouges in the walls in the courtyard outside. The chewing out that Charles and Erik had given them had been brief, the lecture from their host had been much more extensive, if less effective than Charles' five words. Indy, when he saw the aftermath the next morning merely laughed and told them they hadn't made the worst mess he'd seen. When pressed, he vaguely mentioned a German plane and various vehicles having met their end in a fiery explosion. Alex had laughed and promised to do better in the future.

"Who's 'we'?" Raven asked.

"A handful of agents, Erik and myself. It'll be safer for everyone," Charles outlined.

"What are we supposed to do 'til you get back?" Alex went next.

"Relax, practice if it's safe to do so. Hank tells me there's a weapons range in the basement Angel can use. We're not sure if it'll withstand your firepower Alex so maybe lay off the destruction until we can reinforce it," the wry grin let Alex know he was partially forgiven.

"What if you do catch Shaw now, are we just going home again?" Indy said stonily.

"Those that want to, but I promised to help all of you learn about and perfect your mutations. That offer will still stand," the two telepaths didn't break eye contactas Charles spoke.

Indy continued to stare him down for a few seconds before he relaxed and nodded his acceptance. "I'll keep them in line this time."

"Hey we don't need minding Gramps!" Alex said, half serious.

"The statue begs to differ," Indy shot back with a chuckle. "Besides, I have an idea that might help you."

"Just make sure you follow all the protocols."

Indy looked indignantly at Charles for reading his mind. "I wasn't actively, you are broadcasting."

"Sorry," Indy closed his eyes and started rubbing his finger and thumb together.

"It's a focusing method," Charles said as everyone looked at the archaeologist in confusion. "Sensation helps to distract and ground the mind."

"We'll be back in a couple of days hopefully," Erik finished as the group seemed to run out of questions.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

Alex was sitting on his own in the common room, lazily watching the fish whilst the rest of the group did... other things. He wasn't sure where they were, and he didn't care.

"Come on," something hit him on the back of the head.

"What?" he asked as he rubbed the collision spot on his head and sat back on the seat properly to face the room.

Indy stood in front of him, his face lit up with a look of anticipation and excitement that he hadn't seen on the old man before.

"Grab your pass, I said I had an idea," he gestured to the small square of plastic. "Come on Havok."

Alex grinned at the use of his 'codename' and quickly bent to grab the laminated card and followed the taller man. "Where are we going?"

"The shooting range," Indy revealed.

"You know how to shoot?" Havok asked.

"Would I really have fought Nazis and _not_ known how to fire a gun?" Indy asked wryly. "I know a few different skills that are useful in a fight, I'll stick with teaching you to shoot for now. Hopefully it'll improve your aim."

The range ended up being located in a basement three levels below them, and had been manned by one man. The passes gained them immediate entry, but the man on duty went to extremes to explain the firing range. Indy patiently listened to the instructions, humouring the man as he almost stooped to the levels of explaining how guns worked. Eventually he retreated to a safe distance behind the two mutants, and Indy finally reached for one of the guns.

"Huh, much lighter than I'm used to," he said as he hefted it in his grip.

"This is light?" Havok inspects the handgun left for him.

"I use a Webley, it's a monster but it's seen me through many adventures," Indy explained. "Anyway, let me show you what you need to know..."

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

That evening Havok could not stop talking about their session in the shooting range. They had ended up spending four hours in there before they had been forcibly ejected by the guy manning the range. Havok's aim had improved a lot with a gun at least, but they had to wait and see whether his aim with his own energy was any better. Indy had also benefited from some practice but he warned Havok how moving targets were that much harder to hit.

So on the next day Indy was practically dragged down to the range again, but this time Banshee and Angel were clamouring for lessons, with Havok following along for fun. Angel proved to be a much better shot that Havok or Banshee, however as Banshee pointed out she had already had plenty of practice aiming her own projectiles. Banshee and Havok ended up having a friendly competition, whilst Indy faced Angel in their own little tournament. They left in time for lunch, the three younger mutants clutching the rolled up targets as souvenirs of their lesson.

"So do you have your own gun with you?" Banshee asked when they sat down with their buffet lunches.

"Yes," Indy said cautiously.

"Can we see it?" came the immediate question.

"Alright, after lunch. But I'm not bringing it out here, if one of the agent's see it they might confiscate it," he said.

Havok and Banshee grinned eagerly, and the conversation over lunch revolved aboutique weapons and fighting. Angel and Raven rolled their eyes at the boys' antics and started what they felt was a much more adult conversation. Indy listened to all of them, happy to just observe until he got dragged off to his room.

The two late teens were just as eager to look around his room as they were to see the gun that Indy had smuggled in. Havok, having come from prison, had only come with two sets of clothes. Banshee had brought a selection of magazines, posters, and music to keep himself occupied. Indy's room was almost as sparse as Havok's, despite the man having a whole house of personal items. On the sidetable by his bed sat two books, one newly printed and fresh looking. The other was a tiny leatherbound journal that was heavily worn and travel stained, with odd bits of paper poking out. A random looking rock sat next to it. Havok looked curiously at it but was easily distracted by Indiana pulling his bag from under his bed. As the professor reached in to retrieve the gun Banshee spotted something that caught his attention.

"What the heck is that?" he blurted out.

"My short range weapon," Indiana said grimly before closing the bag again. "This is my gun."

Oddity forgotten, the three happily spent an hour talking about the handgun and then other models Indiana had used. Invariably they then ended up talking about more unusual weapons Indy had fought with, including swords, rocket launchers, and tanks.

As they left Banshee kept up a constant stream of conversation, so they didn't notice when Havok ducked out and disappeared.

"Charles is going to have a hard time getting you to focus on team training," Darwin laughed when he could get a word in edge ways.

"Who needs our skills when you can just fire a gun?" Banshee gushed.

"Guns run out of bullets," Indy warned.

"Then you just reload it," Banshee countered.

"And if there's no time? I've found it's best to carry two guns then go close range," the veteran explained.

"Or you could just go scream at them," Havok chipped in as he entered the room and sat down.

"Alright, " Banshee said glumly.

"Hey, your skills are amazing and I bet hundreds of kids would love to have your powers," Indy held up a hand to stop Banshee's protest. "I know, they suck when you actually have to live with them, but they make you unique in the entire world."

None of them said anything to that, and fell into a pensive silence as they thought about that point of view. Alex especially seemed quite surprised and thoughtful about the spontaneous pep talk.

After the evening meal the seven of them relaxed together, happily joking with each other. Darwin and Havok migrated to the pinball machine to settle their bet as to who was better. Indy had the lone seat whilst the remaining lads sat on one sofa and the ladies on the other. Someone had just cracked a joke about Banshee's aim and their bravery at using glasses which had set them off laughing.

"Hey, no one told me the circus was in town!" one of the agent's shouted from the other side of the window. Immediately the seven mutants stopped laughing and turned to the man who had been patrolling, supposedly to protect them.

"Come on honey show us a little, I hear that's your thing," the other standing by him hooted.

Hank stood, a tight look on his face showing what he thought of the two men's actions.

"No? How about you big foot, let's see them," the first tried again.

"Hang on," Indy said quietly.

Hank stopped and looked at him angrily. "You expect us to listen to them."

"No, but it's my turn to get in trouble," Indy smiled grimly as he stood and walked towards the window.

"What's up Gramps? Gonna talk to us about respecting you freaks?" number one said again. "Or are you their pimp? Come to talk rates?"

To the other mutants it looked like Indy merely stood there, staring impassively at them. Only Hank, who stood close to the window, could see how his eyes twitched slightly and the intense look of concentration on the man's face. And then they all saw how the two agents suddenly grasped their heads in pain and sank to their knees. Then their jackets caught on fire, and they leapt up and ran away.

"What did you do?" Mystique asked as the guys laughed and Angel cheered joyfully.

"I just let them know what I thought of close minded scum like them," Indy said mildly.

"Which involved...?" She pried.

"Gave them a taste of the migraines I've become used to. The setting their jackets on fire was an accident," Indy shrugged. "But I didn't scramble their brains so that has to be a bonus."

"Shows your control is a little better I suppose," Havok agreed. "And they can't really complain if they try to press charges."

"And I can argue I didn't lay a finger on them, I could have argued my way out of so many lectures if I hadn't any evidence that I had punched someone," Indy complained, much to the amusement of the others.

"You told us not to get into trouble, and you used to brawl?" Banshee said in mock outrage of the double standards.

"Hey, I didn't destroy government property... Or at least not respectable government's property. Hitler's doesn't count," Indy argued.

Their merriment was abruptly cut off by a weird thumping sound. They all looked around for the source of the sound as it echoed for the second time.

"What is that?" Havok said what they were all thinking.

"It's never happened before," Hank spoke from experience.

"Something's wrong," Indiana said. It might have been stating the obvious, but his gut instinct was kicking him into the fight or flight mode. "We need to get out of here."

"No one can break in here, the security is too tight," Angel said optimistically.

"What's that up there?" Banshee asked as he looked up and squinted.

The answer became pretty obvious as the body slammed into the concrete path right in front of their window. All of them screamed and leapt into the centre of the room, away from the windows and the grisly scene. Despite a few of them shouted in protest of what was happening the bodies continued to rain down in the courtyard, hitting the glass pagodas and the empty statue plinth, and the grass on the other side of the building. Whoever turned the floodlights on in order to spot the aerial attacker only helped in lighting up the falling agents, showing that each was still alive as they plummeted to the ground.

Mystique was on the verge of tears, whilst Angel hid behind Banshee who looked ready to throw up. Hank had started hyperventilating, and Darwin's wide eyes showed how he was processing the scene. Only Havok looked halfway normal at the deaths happening in front of him. Everyone had frozen in shock, apart from a few twitches as more bodies hit the ground.

"Move the sofas!" Indy shouted as he grabbed one and heaved it at an angel to the courtyard window.

Hank helped him with the other one, and they created a small triangle against one wall. With the little protection it provided Jones started shoving the others over and behind them. Not a moment later armed men started to rush into the courtyard, searching around for a target and failing to find it. However, it soon found them, and soon the red coloured man started appearing next to each soldier and disappeared with them. The delayed impact of another body on the concrete told Indiana where they were going, and he winced at the brutal death. His plan immediately proved useful as the panicked spray of bullets shattered the window and buried bullets in the wall behind them.

A sudden tornado behind them destroyed the Cerebro installation and alerted them to the fact another mutant was in the base. And if the raining bodies hadn't been enough of a hint, they now knew for certain that they were hostile. A distant rumble had Indy wrenching his head in the relevant direction.

"Rocket launchers? What the hell is going on," he muttered to himself.

It was a bizarre wish, but at that moment he really wanted his gun with him. The chances of it actually being useful against teleporters, tornado summoners, and who knew who else were slim to none, but without it Indiana felt helpless. A deep booming rumble and the deep vibrations alerted him to the distinct possibility that a part of the building had collapsed.

"We need to get out of here!" Mystique shouted above the noise.

"Too late for that," Indy called grimly.

"So we just sit here?!" Banshee yelled.

"Unless you can beat a teleporter and whatever did that?" Indiana pointed out the window at the strewn metal. "We're stuck here, at least we can see the room and have our backs to something."

"Who made you boss?" Angel cried.

"I did as I've more experience than all of you, now stay down!" Jones roared back, and thankfully they all did duck back down.

The tornado flung another hapless agent through the air, and through their one surviving window. At the same time, the red man slaughtered the last of the men in the courtyard. Finally silence descended as the tornado blew itself out, the gunshots ceased, and the building stopped shaking.

A man in a grey suit jumped through the window to the outside, whilst the red man in a black suit stepped in from the courtyard. Both waited, not saying anything, until a figure appeared in the frosted glass of the doorway. A third man, in a matching tailored suit of deep blue and red, appeared wearing a weird helmet which caused Indiana to pause.

With all the chaos going on his attention had been ripped away from maintaining a centre of calm, and he had been listening to the thoughts of all the minds around him. It had been a torrent of screams from around him, fearful jibbering coming from above, confused and angry spurts from the armed soldiers, and a few dark and gleeful chuckles whispered in between. With only nine minds left in the vicinity it was a lot quieter, but it still took Indiana a few seconds to realize that one of the minds wasn't broadcasting anything.

"Where's the telepath?" the man who was obviously in charge asked.

"Not here," the red one answered.

"Well that's disappointing," the american spoke again, not noticing how a few of the younger mutants unconsciously flickered their gaze to their oldest member. "But it does mean I can take this silly thing off."

Immediately the ninth voice joined the swirl of others in the room that Indiana could hear, and he quickly pieced together what had gone on. He gasped at the revelation, but thankfully no one noticed.

"Good evening, my name is Sebastian Shaw," Shaw started, the friendly smile on his face was completely at odds with the death and destruction around them. "I'm not here to hurt you."

"Freeze!" a lone agent, somehow missed in the chaos, bravely ran up to them.

"Azazel," Shaw said mildly.

Immediately Azazel disappeared, reappearing behind the agent and slicing his neck open. Leisurely he walked back to his spot just inside the window again and Shaw carried on like their had been no interruption.

"Now, I'm not here to hurt you," he said gently.

Havok let out a snort of laughter and gazed around them at the massacre, but Indiana relaxed his stance slightly knowing he was speaking true.

"My friends there is a revolution coming, a time when mankind will learn of what we can do. Now, we can either be enslaved by them," here he looked around the group and started to zoom in on the ones where his voice had the most effect. "Or rise up to rule."

Angel started to relax and really focussed on his words. The others seemed unaffected after the violence shown by the man.

"Choose freely but know that if you aren't with us, then by definition you are against us. So you can stay and fight for the people who fear and despise you, or you can join me and live like kings, and queens," Shaw said softly, almost lovingly.

Five of them stayed resolutely back, unified as a group. But one stepped forward slightly, and another stepped completely over the couch and into the middle of the two groups.

"Indy!" Raven said in shock, whilst Darwin cried after Angel.

"What are you doing Gramps?" Havok's old taunt bit at the man and shook him from his stupor slightly.

"He has something that can help me," Indy said as he looked at the rest of the group.

None of them had thought about the impact the attack would have on the man, and they could see now how ashen his face was, and how tightly wound he was.

"He caused you your pain, and I doubt he will help you," Mystique said quietly.

"I promise I'll figure out something to fix your problem," Hank vowed.

Indiana slowly nodded and stepped back in front of the younger group.

Shaw held his hand out and Angel gently took it as she moved to stand with the man.

"Angel," Darwin said gently, shaking his head in disbelief.

"We don't belong here, and that's nothing to be ashamed of," she said sadly.

"And do you think Shaw's future is one that is going to be achieved peacefully?" Indy said quickly. "You were terrified of the death him and his men sowed just now. Do you think you could happily do that to innocent men?"

"They weren't innocent, they hate us!" Angel snapped back.

"A few might, but if you go down that path you can be sure that they will hate all of us by the end of it," Jones warned.

"Not if we win," Angel shrugged.

"Said just like a Nazi," he snarled back at her, all patience gone. "And see where they are now."

Shaw's eyes narrowed at that insult, but the three men remained silent as the two argued it out.

"I'm sorry," Angel said quietly then tugged on the man's hand.

"We've gotta do something," Darwin muttered as the four started to climb back out the window.

"Using your power isn't going to help," Indy said quietly as he saw the formations of a plan in Havok's head. "He absorbs energy."

"Then we can't do anything?" Mystique said in a panicked tone.

"Havok, my bag," Indy said quickly. "It's loaded but the safety's on. Be quick, we'll only have one chance at this."

Whilst the ex-convict dashed off Indy stepped over the window and out after the four.

"Hey Shaw, how is your new oath going to go? Anything like the one you had to swear? What was it? ' _I swear by God this Holy oath that I want to offer unconditional obedience,'_ or something like that?" he shouted after the man.

Shaw stopped and glared at Indiana. "You seem remarkably well informed. What's your name?"

"Henry Jones," Indiana purposefully gave the one that would have no meaning to a Nazis, whereas his nickname may be recognized. "I met your Furher once."

"Did you now," Shaw drawled, not knowing where the conversation was heading.

"Yes, and I wished I could have done something about it. I could have stopped the entire war happening if I had had a gun on me," Indiana said regretfully. "Howevery at least I can stop you now."

And at that moment two people leapt into action. Indiana slammed as much force as he could behind a mental attack, driving spikes of pain into the minds of the four of them. And Havok burst into the room and leapt towards the window, firing as he went.

The next few seconds were a blur of confused shouting, explosions, and people being flung in every direction. Indiana was aware of one of the enemy falling, but then all four of them vanished. Then there was an explosion and he was flung backwards and the world went dark.


	6. Chapter 6

Charles and Erik sat in sullen silence as the agent drove the three of them back from the airport to the CIA base. The lack of Shaw's presence had lead to Erik completely ignoring their demands and dashing into the mansion. It proved pointless as Shaw's right hand woman also escaped, leaving a Russian general unconscious on the bed. So they had traveled to Russia on a wild goose chase, and had nothing to show for it apart from a few rumours of Americans on Russian soil.

"What the hell?" Moira breathed as they turned down the drive.

Charles had been lost in thought, so he snapped his head up at her curse, and he too swore softly. Half of the entrance to the building was in pieces, large chunks of rubble littered the stairs and garden borders, and the front doors were missing. Numerous suits milled around trying to sort out the mess, whilst men in heavy duty gear actually started moving the rubble. A few ambulances stood idle by the curb, with paramedics walking around.

On a surviving bench just to the side of the entrance path sat five of their recruits, and while Mactaggart grabbed the nearest agent for information the other two dashed over to them.

"Raven!" Charles called as they approached.

The woman didn't hesitate to surge to her feet and into her oldest friend's arms, gratefully burying her face into his shoulder. Charles stroked her hair in a comforting gesture he had done since he was twelve as Raven silently shook in his arms. He glanced at the other four and saw how they looked relieved to have them back again.

"What happened?" Erik asked.

"Shaw turned up," Havok said bitterly.

"What?" Charles stared at them.

"Him and his two men attacked," Banshee added a bit.

"Azazel grabbed the men and dropped them onto the roofs, and the other one destroyed Cerebro," Hank tried to clarify more.

"Where are the others?" Charles asked desperately.

"Shaw offered us the chance to join him," Darwin said glumly.

"And they took it?" Erik growled.

The four of them looked uneasily at each other. Raven broke her hug with Charles and looked worriedly at one of the ambulances.

"What?" Erik looked at her.

"Angel did, we tried to stop her," Raven sniffed.

"Indiana?"

"Havok was going to blast them with his energy but Indy said that Shaw would absorb it. So he sent Havok to get his gun whilst he stalled them. Kept talking about vows and the Nazis to get Shaw's attention. Havok tried shooting them, but there was some kind of explosion and everything happened at once," Raven filled in.

"Shaw could have expelled energy," Hank hypothesized. "Part of the wall collapsed and by the time we could get into the courtyard they were gone. Indiana was unconscious and bleeding."

Charles didn't want to use his powers, but the disjointed story wasn't any use to them. So he quickly scanned the surface thoughts of the five of them. Between them he managed to gather the rest of the information he wanted. Indiana had been thrown mercifully clear of the falling rubble, but he had been bleeding from his nose and ears. Hank had made sure they hadn't moved him until the paramedics arrived, so the chance of neck injury was reduced. Charles guessed some of the damage was from him using his powers, the rest possibly from the energy backlash, but they wouldn't know what was wrong until they had him at the hospital.

"What the hell was he thinking?" Erik stared at the ambulance.

"He and I were probably the best to deal with the situation, I just can't aim," Havok said bitterly.

"You tried," Charles said gently. "Now get your things, you're all going home."

"What?" Banshee said in disbelief.

"After this you want to send us home?" Darwin protested.

"He's not going back to prison," Hank joined in, gesturing to Havok.

"And we promised to help Indy," Raven jabbed.

"If he makes it," Havok muttered.

"Stop it, you did your best," Darwin slapped him on the arm.

"Well we can always avenge him," Erik spoke up.

"Erik, a word please," Charles turned from Raven and stared at the other lead mutant. "They're just kids."

"No, they _were_ kids. Now they've seen what they're facing and they still want to fight. Shaw has his army, we need ours," Erik stated.

Charles turned to stare at the five younger mutants. Raven's eyes were red but she had her head at the angle that he _knew_ she would be a nigh on possible to make her back down. Darwin was quiet but looked determined, and Banshee had almost the same look albeit slightly less composed. Havok looked a wreck, constantly looking between them and the ambulance. But he was also obviously with the others.

Realizing he was outnumbered Charles sighed. "We'll all need to train."

"All?" Erik said with a small grin.

"Where are we going to go? We can't stay here," Darwin gestured to the wreck around them.

"I know somewhere," Charles said, almost with a hint of regret. "But first we get Indy settled in hospital and I'll show you the place."

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

"How did it go?" Shaw asked as Azazel reappeared with Emma holding his hand.

"The telepath turned up," she said shortly.

"I wondered where he went," he replied lightly.

"They still don't know what we are planning to do, I managed to stop him from reading my mind before I got out of there," Emma was pretty smug about outwitting her equal.

"It would have been useful having your powers with us," Shaw led her through from the office into the command room of the submarine.

"Who's this?" Emma said in a polite but suspicious manner.

"Emma this is Angel, Angel, meet Emma."

"I've heard so much about you," Angel said politely before turning back to watch Riptide working.

"We went to deliver a warning to the telepath and his team, and Angel saw which side was the winning side and joined us," Shaw patted her on the shoulder.

"Then why would you have needed me?" Emma still hadn't seen the problem.

"Because they've got a fledgling telepath as well as Charles," Angel explained.

"Which one?"

"Indiana, the oldest one," Angel didn't know how much they knew of the team, so she kept it simple.

"How is that possible?" Shaw asked in interest.

"An explosion is all he would say," the black haired woman shrugged.

"We need to know more," their leader said ecstatically.

"But we have no idea where they'll be now," Angel pointed out.

"Azazel and Emma can deal with that, they're likely to be sorting out the wreckage of the building still and someone will know what happened to the others," Shaw nodded to the pair again.

They nodded back and without a pause linked hands and were gone again.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

None of them had really wanted to leave Indy alone at the hospital, but Charles promised he would be back once they were all settled in their new rooms. To start with the others didn't understand why he had to show them the way, but after seeing the building that they were moving to they understood.

"I don't know how you survived, Charles, living in such hardship," Erik murmured softly as the younger mutants hurried after Raven who was going to take them on a tour.

The joke hid the disbelief that Erik felt. He had grown up in a small house with his parents, before they had been forced to the camps. He had always had a problem wrapping his head around some of the grotesque displays of wealth in his travels, and knowing his friend had grown up in such a place was hard to understand.

"You were an only child?" he clarified.

"Father enjoyed showing off, it's something that ran in the family. I think I disappointed him when I didn't cultivate the large friend circle for parties," Charles smiled.

"At least maybe a tenth of the rooms will be occupied now," snorted Erik.

"I know, it would be nice to fill them," Charles agreed. "Now I've got to get back to Henry, it might not be pretty if he wakes up without control."

After swapping the van for a car Charles headed out again, grinning at the amazed thoughts that flashed through the air to him. Raven would keep them entertained for hours showing them the house and grounds. So he easily had the rest of the day to spend at the hospital.

He received a few odd looks at the front desk when he enquired about their last recruit, and Charles didn't know what information had been given to them about the case. So a quick check had him acting like Jones' nephew and he was sent in the right direction, up four flights of stairs and to the nurses station.

"Hello, I'm here to see Henry Jones," he smiled at the nurse at the station.

"Turn right, in the room at the end," the woman quickly checked the list of patients and pointed in the right direction.

"Thank you," the mutant strode around the desk and headed along the corridor.

He nodded at a few nurses and doctors that he passed, but his relaxed attitude changed between one heartbeat and the next. Two minds suddenly had appeared in the midst of all the others. He started running towards the room at the end of the corridor, where he could see two figures through the open door. Indiana was lying in the bed, unconscious Charles assumed. And standing over him was the female telepath, and a red skinned man with black hair.

The woman seemed to suddenly sense him, as both of them looked up before he had even made a sound or gotten close enough to be heard. The woman sent him a sweet smile, and said something to the man. He immediately grabbed a hold of her hand and the arm of the patient, and suddenly all three of them were gone.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

After spending hours answering questions about the missing man, Charles dragged himself home again. He couldn't exactly tell the police that the man had been teleported out of the hospital, so the vague information he had tried to give of his kidnappers was next to useless. All that had been reported was a patient was missing, and the situation around the disappearance was going to be treated as suspicious.

"What do you mean he's been kidnapped!" Havok repeated loudly.

"Their telepath and teleporter found him, and took him," Charles replied tiredly as he went about making himself a hot drink.

"He's called Azazel," Darwin supplied. "We didn't get her name."

"Did they go for him because he was on his own, or because they need him?" Hank asked the important question.

"No idea, it could be either. But for now no one travels anywhere alone," Charles ordered, and the rest of the sombre group nodded in agreement.

"And we start training tomorrow, if they manage to get him on their side we need to be as strong as possible to compete with two telepaths," Erik decided.

"Do you think they can convert him?" Banshee asked.

"He was prepared to join them at first," Mystique said sullenly. "He would do anything to avoid having his mutation, so they might be able to buy him out."

"Then we need to figure out a way to neutralize him" Erik said with a tone of finality.

"That helmet," Hank said suddenly.

"What?" Charles looked at the genius.

"Shaw was wearing a helmet to start with, when he learned that you weren't with us he took it off. Somehow it must stop a telepath's powers from reading a mind. If we can force it on him and keep it on him then he might not be able to fight," Hank theorized.

"Would you be able to build more of them?" Charles said with interest.

"I have no idea who created it, or how, but I'll give it a go," Hank nodded.

"As well as the rest of the stuff," Mystique pointed out.

"We're all going to be busy, so we should probably call it a night and start early tomorrow," Charles decided, and the seven of them broke up.

They were all quite subdued as they separated at their respective rooms, none of them looking forward to the next day. Although the five younger mutants had finally learnt that the upcoming battle wasn't a game and had gained a respect for their situation, they had still been quite excited to gain a better understanding of their skills. Now that they were faced with the possibility of facing two of their friends there was much less joviality in the air as they prepared for the day ahead.


	7. Chapter 7

Indiana groaned and tried to roll over. His limbs wouldn't obey him, and he groaned again at the inconvenience of getting old. He gave it a few minutes before trying again, with the same results. Slowly more coherent thoughts started to filter through his brain, and the familiar predicament became obvious.

 _'Captured, again,'_ Indiana thought grouchily.

Gingerly he struggled to open his eyes to see his surroundings, blinking as the intense light assaulted his eyes. The sterile white surroundings made a difference from the dingy caves or hot tents that he normally found himself in. Pipes ran along the walls and even overhead on the ceiling, telling him that he was in some kind of machine driven vehicle. After a few minutes of listening he was able to dredge up a few old memories to link to his surroundings and he made sense of where he was.

He was propped in the far end of the room in one corner with his hands bound above his head. Gingerly Indiana curled his legs under him to ease some of the cramps that were a result of being left in one position for too long. He wished he could do the same with his hands, but whoever had bound him to the pipes had known their work and there was no way he could wriggle the fastening of the pipe loose. There were large gaps in his memory, the last he remembered was attacking Shaw at the CIA base. So he wasn't entirely sure how he ended up in a hospital gown, but he was certain he was going to try to minimise his movements to keep covered and as warm as possible in the chilly room.

Surprisingly it was one of the most obvious facts that it took Jones the longest to notice. Only as he thumped his head backwards in frustration, and the plastic thumped against metal, did Indiana realize he was wearing a helmet. From the edge design that he could see out the corner of his eyes Jones could identify it as the one that Shaw had worn to greet them. Part of him was elated, he was alone in his head for the first time in months and there was no risk of alien thoughts worming through into his own private thoughts. However, he knew that whilst he was wearing it he wouldn't be able to know where he was, or what was going to happen. Being a captive, and unable to control his fate, was nothing new to Indiana so he wasn't aggravated by being tied up. But it was the first time that he had been thwarted by an article of clothing.

"Dad would never let me hear the end of it," he muttered to himself ruefully.

He sat in the almost silence for what felt like hours. With only the hum of an engine as a source of sound, and no clock to watch time pass on, Indiana was left to keep guessing what was going on. He tried to shuffle around and get comfortable enough to sleep, however he was too wired to rest. Silently he chuckled at the thought that he was so used to being held captive that he wasn't even panicking. If anything his body was relishing the sudden adrenaline spike and was geared up for a fight.

"Ah, nice to see some room service," Jones said as soon as the door opened at last.

"It's nice to know you have a sense of humour, as well as a keen mind," Shaw said with a large smile as he stepped through the door and leaned casually against one wall.

"Well I guessed you had a sense of humour, so I thought I should reciprocate," Indy jerked his head downwards. "Or are your men merely forgetful?"

"They were pushed for time," was all that Shaw would say.

"So, any particular reason for taking me?" with care Indiana managed to arrange himself in a casual position, making it look like he was quite happy to sit and chat whilst bound.

"I would love to hear your story," the warmonger didn't beat around the bush.

"I'll consider telling you, if you would find me some clothes," Indiana bartered.

"Not your freedom, not the safety of your friends? You ask for clothes?" Shaw asked in an incredulous tone.

"I know what kind of a man you are, clothes are a pretty safe request," Jones shrugged. "Plus if you move to interrogation tactic number two then this is going to get awkward for both of us really quickly."

There was no verbal reply to that, however Shaw threw back his head and laughed heartily as he left and shut the door behind him. Five minutes later, or that was what Indiana guessed it to be, he was back with a pile of clothes and a key, and a follower. He dumped the black shirt and trousers at Indy's feet and motioned for Azazel to unlock the man.

"Azazel will make sure that you don't try anything foolish, like removing the helmet," Shaw explained.

The other man remained quiet, but his tail flicked around Indiana threateningly. Although it was nothing like a whip, he didn't want to tempt any retribution from the appendage so Jones changed as quickly as his numb hands would allow. The clothes he had been given seemed to be from the teleporter's own wardrobe, as being close together revealed they were the same height. Black was not a colour that Indiana ever chose himself, preferring to go with earthy or lighter colours, but he wasn't going to grumble at being clothed once again. No socks or shoes were provided before he was cuffed to the wall again.

"Thank you very much, much more comfortable," Indiana said as he wriggled his shoulders to get as comfortable as he could.

"So, your story?" Shaw asked politely.

Jones stared up at his captor contemplatively. On one hand, defying the man would be rather satisfying and the only kind of control he could have of the situation. Keeping Shaw busy might give Charles' team time to mount a defence against the man whilst he was distracted with him here. However, defying the energy-absorbing mutant would definitely lead to pain, and the information wasn't exactly worth dying for. The only thing he knew for certain was that with the helmet on their telepath couldn't read him, and they couldn't risk taking the helmet off in case he managed to fit in an attack on all of them.

"Fahr zur Hölle," Indiana said simply and closed his eyes in anticipation.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

Angel was slowly adjusting to life in a submarine. It was incredibly cramped and she was sure it would be her last choice of places to live in the future, but it suited their purposes as no one could detect them underwater. When she had arrived Azazel had given her the tour, showing her the control and command rooms on the top level, the accommodation rooms on the second level, and the maintenance rooms on the third level. She had been given her own private room and left to her own devices for a short while. She hadn't known the plans that Shaw had made until she had heard a great deal of shuffling, and seen Azazel walk past her room with the unconscious telepath on his shoulder.

She had taken to lying in her bunk reading a book that Emma had lent her, the door of her room open so that she could half keep an eye on the goings on in the corridor. So she had seen when Azazel and Sebastian had walked past, then saw Azazel go to his own room, then them both leave twenty minutes later. When Shaw breezed passed he acknowledged her presence with a smile and a wink, however his cheery demeanor couldn't distract her from the fact his hands were red and swollen.

She casually stood up to follow them, but quickly diverted to the galley on the way and grabbed a handful of ice cubes and wrapped them in a towel for him. She caught up with their leader in the control room and handed over the bundle.

"Thanks Angel," Shaw smiled again and held the cool fabric to his right hand.

"What happened?" she asked.

"He's a little reluctant to talk, but I'll fix that," he said confidently. "But first I've got to wait for him to wake up again."

"And once he's told you everything?" Angel asked cautiously.

"We don't harm our own," Shaw said gently. "But I doubt he is actually one of our own. So I'll let Riptide have his revenge for getting shot, and then Azazel with take care of him."

The other three mutants had been listening in on their conversation and smiled happily at that declaration.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

Havok lay and savoured the opportunity to just relax in the unbelievably comfy bed in the mansion. Considering how luxurious the entire site was it shouldn't have surprised him that the beds were just as opulent, but as he burrowed deeper into the fluffy duvet he knew he had been proven wrong. Although he didn't really enjoy lazing in bed for long, a habit instilled by prison life, Havok did stop for five minutes before getting up to face the day as he knew he would regret it if he didn't try to relax. The last couple of days had been exhausting, both mentally and physically, and all of them were starting to show signs of stress.

After Indiana's kidnapping they had all thrown themselves into training, determined to be the best they could when it came to the fight. Although Erik had been cautionary and the voice of reason, Havok had not believed that they would have to face the man he had started seeing as a mentor in the battle. His rage directed at Shaw had been too real and too great for him to ever then side with the man. So they worked to be able to rescue him, but that was easier said than done.

Hank, who's mutation was pretty basic, spent most of his time observing and assisting Charles train the others. He developed a sort of flight suit for Banshee who had started trying to use it yesterday. Although at the moment he was only at the stage of _falling_ out of windows both of them were certain he could fly.

Darwin again knew what his body could do, but the three of them spent time in the bunker figuring out how much his body could withstand. None of them were brave enough to risk firing bullets, but that were they were up to.

Havok had been the main user of the bunker, the only safe place where his energy discs wouldn't destroy everything in site. He had shredded some of the light fittings, and there were deep gouges in the brick work, but the bunker was still functional. He was also churning through the mannequins, and yet Charles kept appearing with more. Havok was almost afraid to ask where the man found them all.

They had ended up finishing the days only when Charles called it, Havok was determined to try to learn as quick as he could and often the professor forced him to stop. As a result he had only had the energy to eat dinner and go to bed the last couple of days. His attempts to be social in the living room that they had all commandeered hadn't worked, as Banshee had ended up tapping him on the head to wake him up once he started snoring.

After his few minutes of decadent laziness Havok got up and dressed for the day in the training tracksuit that Charles had bought him. They had been able to recover their possessions from the base, but the telepath had insisted on outfitting them with a few more sets of clothes just for the purpose of training. He headed to the kitchen to find some breakfast before going on a run, or using the weightlifting equipment that Charles had bought to outfit one of the rooms.

He had just sat down at the table with a bowl of cereal when he heard footsteps of someone else coming. He carried on eating leisurely, and watched out the corner of his eye to see who it was.

"Morning Hank," he said as the other man came through the door.

"Morning Havok," the genius respectfully used his codename.

"So what's your plan for the day?"

"I think I've made something that will help you, so I'll join Charles and you in your training session. I'm also looking into Mystique's genes, her ability to change her appearance might hold the key to a treatment for more extreme mutations," Hank explained basically.

"What, like a cure?" Havok stopped eating and looked up.

"No, it would only affect the outer appearance. Can you imagine what Azazel has had to go through as a child, and does it make it surprising that he is against humans?" Hank said.

"Just make sure you're creating it for the right reasons," Havok said after a pause.

"Why do you say that?" Hank asked in surprise.

"It's something that Indiana said to us, Banshee seemed a bit down about his mutation not being that offensive after we had been in the shooting range. He said that our powers make us unique, and while we see them as a curse sometimes there would be kids out there who would love to have all of our differences. Yes, Azazel probably did face a lot of bullying but you hardly need a cure," Havok said with conviction. "How many kids out there would love the opportunity to scamper up a tree as quick as you can?"

Hank merely sat there speechless as he stared at the youth who had been guilty of taunting him just days ago. Havok started to feel a little uncomfortable and shuffled in his seat. "Just don't leap in to anything. Mystique can hide anything she doesn't like, and yours isn't even noticeable. It might be a project for the future, but it's not worth the time now."

He then quickly left, determined to hit the weights first, so he didn't see Hank's contemplative look. Havok was halfway through a workout when he spotted Hank and Charles running past the windows, and apparently Charles won the race. Charles then spent ten minutes talking to the young genius and apparently was trying to convince him of something. Eventually Hank took his shoes and socks off, revealing what he was ashamed of and they raced again. This time though Hank won, and Charles was cheering him.

Havok couldn't resist, he quickly opened the window and shouted over to them. "See Beast, you'd never have beaten his equally scrawny ass if you had taken a cure!"

Hank's faint blush told him that his words had hit the right spot and he shut the window again, pleased his work was done.

And later in the day his support of the newly dubbed 'Beast' was rewarded when he presented him with a vest to help focus his energy beam. And Beast stayed to help give advice and adjust the suit there and then. After a couple of hours Havok was able to shoot the mannequin between Beast and the Professor, and neither of them flinched.

He let out a victorious cheer when the plastic figure exploded, and the other two started clapping. However his joy was short lived, as his first thought flitted through his head and brought him up short.

"What's up Alex?" Charles asked.

"Indy should be here to see this, he believed that I could do this back at the base when we were at the range," Havok said quietly.

"We will get him back, don't worry," Beast said comfortingly. "We'll make them pay for taking him."

"Who can stand against Beast and Havok?" Havok said with a grateful smile.

"They aren't going to know what hit them," Beast grinned.

* * *

 **A/N: I've gone back and adjusted some of the older chapters. I'm typing some of this on my phone and apparently Samsung likes to stupidly alter some words if you have to delete one letter. So spelling mistakes have been corrected, but none of the story has been changed beyond that.**


	8. Chapter 8

Agent MacTaggart had appeared that morning, bearing what information she had managed to gather from the CIA to share with them. It wasn't much, beyond the Russians were moving to retaliate against America's decision to place nuclear missiles in Turkey, and the navy was gearing up to prevent such a move. However it seemed that none of them needed to use their contacts to find out what was going on, as a special news bulletin helped them along.

"So we're going to Cuba?" Banshee asked as the bulletin ended and the usual scheduled programmes continued.

"Wherever the action is going to be, that's where Shaw will be too. He'll want to make sure that a war is started, even if Russia decides to back down and don't make it to Cuba itself," Charles said grimly.

"Well I always wanted to travel," Darwin said lightly.

"Beast, is that prototype jet going to be functional?" Erik asked.

"I can get it over here by this evening," Beast said with certainty. "And it'll easily get us to Cuba."

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

Indiana was going stir crazy in his cell. Without being able to move he had long gone past the stage of pins and needles in his hands, and had started wondering whether they would drop off. Shaw had been in a few times to try to convince him to talk, but he had refused on principle and as a result had normally woken up a few hours later aching more than before. The last time had been worse, Shaw had apparently decided to use his own powers as the next level of persuasion, and the burning sensation that resulted was still lingering around the edges of his senses.

The door opened to his cell and as always he tried to get a better view of the room beyond. Apparently he wasn't going to learn much, as it just lead to another corridor.

"So how long have we been underwater?" he asked Angel as she walked through first.

"A few days," she said shortly.

As always Azazel lingered in the doorway as she undid his hands and offered him the food she had carried. It took him a few minutes to massage the feeling back into his hands enough to actually take the plate and cup and Angel watched him the entire time.

"How come you don't think Shaw is right?" Angel asked curiously.

"What, that we don't belong with humans?" Indy clarified, and she nodded. "Because we _are still humans._ Just because we have one gene different doesn't make us a new species. People who study DNA have found more genetic diversity between Africans and Aryans and we still class all of them as human. Being gifted doesn't give us the right to think of ourselves as above them."

"But we can do so much better than them," Angel protested.

"Can you hear yourself?" Indy said incredulously. "That trail of thought is what led to the last world war, and to the deaths of millions."

"They were all humans, we are something more," Angel countered. "You're just too narrow minded to see the truth."

"I'm sorry for what's going to happen, Angel," he said sadly realizing that the argument could easily go in circles Indiana decided to end it. And if he could escape and help stop Shaw, he was far enough past sentimentality to spare someone as far gone as Angel.

Angel looked at him oddly but shrugged and left, Azazel sealing the door behind them.

They returned to the control room where Azazel went back to his usual spot at the radars, and Riptide was at the helm. The door to Sebastian's private office was open and Emma beckoned her through.

Shaw normally asked her to sit when they were having meetings, however this time he didn't even wait for Emma to be with him before he started talking.

"Emma listened in on your conversation," he said without preamble.

"Is there something wrong?" a small trickle of fear wound through Angel's belly. She thought she hadn't said anything that would offend her new teammates.

"Nothing with you my dear," the small quirk of his lips reassured her of that statement. "However I would very much like to know why you called him 'Indy'."

"That's the nickname he wanted, Havok wanted to give him the name Psycho but he insisted that Indiana had been his nickname for years and that's what he was sticking with. Why?" she gave in to her curiosity and asked.

"I've heard rumours about that man, and it means we have a problem," Shaw said grimly.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

The jet was just as sleek in its flying as it was in design. Beast had at some point in his still relatively short life gained a pilot's license and was easily speeding them towards the site of the impending conflict. Moira was at the comms, the best person to deal with the American Navy when they undoubtedly started to question why an unmarked jet was flying into the middle of a standoff.

"We're not going to be in time to stop this," MacTaggart said as she listened to the radio chatter. "The Russians are almost on the line right now."

"Something's wrong with the Russians too," Charles said, his fingers to his temples as he listened to their thoughts. "They've lost contact with the cargo ship their escorting."

"Azazel, he could have teleported over and taken control of the ship. It wouldn't have been hard for him to kill everyone before they could shout for help," Havok suggested.

"In which case that ship is going over the line even if the Russians back down," Beast said grimly.

"Magneto, could you stop it?" Mystique asked.

"Not for long enough, it's too big to halt and the engines would just push it forward," he shook his head. "If we got on the ship maybe, but not from here."

"Havok?" Banshee asked.

"My aim's good but unless we are right on top of it I don't think I've got the reach. And in that case do we want to do an Indiana?" Havok laughed.

"I've got this," Charles said and put his fingers to his temple again.

"Azazel will probably get out of there as soon as he senses you," Darwin pointed out.

"He's not the target," Charles briefly made eye contact with Darwin before closing them and concentrating.

Barely twenty seconds later a rocket shot from the Russian flagship, colliding with the cargo ship and destroying all the weapons aboard. As a result the ship juddered and broke almost in half whilst flames consumed anything they could. All the naval men watched in shock as the ship started to slowly sink, and all the ships halted in surprise.

"Hank, get closer, we need to find Shaw!" Charles ordered.

"There's nothing on the scanners, can you sense him?" Moira asked.

"No, but he has to be here!" Charles said in frustration.

"He has to be underwater, that's the only place he can hide out here," Beast supplied.

"No chances of the Jet being able to go underwater is there?" Mystique chipped in.

"I hadn't managed to build aquatic capabilities in yet," the genius at the controls laughed.

"And we don't have sonar?" Darwin asked.

"No," Moira shook her head as well.

"Yes we do," Banshee said in excitement.

"Yes we do!" Charles echoed as he ripped his headset off.

Erik copied him and the two accompanied Banshee to the bomb bay doors. Considering his initial fear at trying to fly Banshee seemed to almost gleefully leap from the speeding jet and into thin air. Beast saw him make an almost playful loop before diving down into the ocean below.

"He's got him!" Charles shouted to the others. "Beast, take is close to the coastline, almost directly in the middle of the Russian and American fleets."

Their pilot did so, hovering in almost the exact spot that Charles had described. Erik clamped himself onto the wheels as Beast lowered them for him. Once he was below the jet Erik found the interference lessened and he was able to sense faintly the patch of metal deep below the water's surface. Remembering the last time he had tried to lift the submarine he balked slightly at the mammoth task ahead of him, however he felt a tendril of something worm into his mind.

 _'Remember, the point between rage and serenity. Shaw had it all wrong,'_ Charles whispered to him.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

The sudden squeal across the radio had Riptide wincing and ripping the headset from his ears.

"What's wrong?" Emma asked from her spot in the seat next to him.

"Some kind of interference," Riptide grumbled as he gingerly put the headset back on again.

"Should we get that down here?" Angel asked cautiously from her spot in the corner. Although the others had been teaching her how to man the various parts of the submarine she had deferred to their experience for the duration of the battle.

"Nyet," Azazel said shortly.

He had barely had time to finish setting the reactor to maximum before the submarine started rumbling.

"That's not the reactor," Emma said worriedly.

"We're going backwards," Riptide checked their depth and speed.

"Could it be Indiana?" Angel checked.

"He will definitely still be unconscious," Riptide said with certainty.

"He's still unconscious," Emma confirmed. "It has to be Erik."

"What can we do?" Angel asked.

"Riptide, do you think that once we surface you will be up to going out there and get them to release us?" Emma said calmly.

"It'll be my pleasure," he grinned.

The grey suited man quickly abandoned his post, and Angel slid into it in case she could help. With practiced ease he dashed up the ladder and opened the hatch. The three below couldn't see what was going on, but from the sudden increase in wind they could tell at least one tornado had been sent towards the jet. Almost immediately they felt the submarine start to fall, and then suddenly impact on solid ground.

"Time to go stop the other mutants. Remember, no one gets into the submarine to stop Shaw," Emma ordered.

Both Angel and Azazel nodded. Riptide appeared down the ladder having sealed the hatch, "The jet crashed too, we're on even footing."

"Let's go greet them then," Emma said and held her hand out.

Angel grabbed Riptide's and Azazel held onto both of the women's hands and took them to the beach.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

"Is everyone alright?" Charles shouted as soon as the jet came to a stop on solid ground.

A chorus of calls returned and reassured him that everyone had come out of the crash with few injuries.

"Erik, did the submarine crash on the beach?" he checked next.

"Kind of, the turret is just above water, and the engines are on the sand. Either way, they are too beached to be going anywhere in it," Erik said in a loud enough voice that everyone else was privy to their conversation.

"Can you hear them all now?" Darwin asked as they all started picking themselves up.

"Angel, Azazel, Emma, and Riptide," Charles checked.

"Shaw?" Erik asked.

"Must be there, but I can't sense him."

"Indy?" Havok asked anxiously.

"He's not fighting us at least, but again I can't sense him," Charles explained.

"I'm going to look for him," Havok announced.

"No, we need to take down the other four first, we can find him once the threat is over," Charles said. It was obvious from the regretful look he shot Havok that it wasn't his first choice but what they were obligated to do.

"I can't fight them, my skill is more defensive than offensive," Darwin whispered to Havok as quietly as he could. "I'll go with Magneto into the submarine and I'll find him."

"Thanks," Havok said gratefully.

All of them apart from Charles and Moira piled out of the cracked side of the Jet and onto the sand. Havok started the fight by sending a blast of his energy towards the four by the submarine. Riptide was blasted whilst the two women leapt to one side, and Azazel disappeared. Beast and Havok immediately were engaged by Azazel and disappeared with him, while Erik dashed towards Riptide to neutralise him. Angel took off rather than facing the opposition on equal footing, though she sent a few parting shots at Mystique before disappearing towards the distant ships where there seemed to be a commotion.

Darwin headed straight for the last member of Shaw's team, their telepath. They had no idea how many people she could tackle at once, but with everyone else busy fighting someone else it was up to him.

When she spotted her opponent Emma swiftly changed to her diamond form to withstand the blows. However before she could even reach Darwin another form collided with her.

Mystique scrambled to her feet again and delivered a clumsy kick to the diamond woman. She fell back to the ground with a cry of pain, clutching her foot.

But the short distraction was all that Darwin needed to shift his skin too, and the next hit that impacted with Emma's head rang like the peal of a bell. Both of them felt the impact, but Darwin didn't wait to see if she would back down and immediately landed another couple of blows to her body. Mystique carefully reengaged and trapped Emma's legs causing her to fall over again. However, the angle that she fell at brought her head into direct contact with Darwin's speeding knee.

Both of them shuddered as the air was rent by the sound similar to shattering glass, and Emma's head was separated from her body. They stared at the scene for a few seconds before the screech of ripped metal reached them and alerted them to the fact that Erik had ignored the doors of the submarine and had tore his way in.

Darwin morphed his skin back to its normal look and led the way over to the submarine, Mystique limping behind him. The lights inside of the submarine flickered pitifully, either from the accident frying the wiring or as a result of the ominous thrumming coming from the still active reactor. Mystique gasped and sank to her knees just inside the submarine.

"Wait here, you might be able to help Charles if he calls better than I might," Darwin suggested.

"Good luck," Mystique nodded and leaned against the wall.

Whilst Magneto dashed off, shouting about a blank space he was heading for, Darwin started searching in a more controlled manner. There seemed to be a large amount of empty corridors in the ship, but few rooms. The nearest areas were all service rooms, giving access to random bits of machinery that seemed vital for maintaining the submarine. Systematically he searched from the gaping crack near the rear of the ship to the front, and then he encountered a problem.

Magneto had been forced to rip a hole in the hull in order to access the interior of the submarine that was above the water. However, the entire nose section was still submerged, and hadn't been lucky enough to escape damage. Only about a quarter of the submarine was on the land, which meant three quarters of it was slowly filling with water. Darwin wasn't too concerned, he had shown all his friends that such a trivial element proved no threat to him. But he knew for certain that Indiana wouldn't be so lucky.

With even more haste than before Darwin started wading through the water that filled the corridor he was currently in. When he had to he submerged and carried on searching the dimly lit water for the missing man. When the lowest level proved empty he climbed a ladder and searched the second level. From the looks of it he had guessed there were three levels to the submarine, and time was running out for the second level as he went. He wrenched a door open to the second corridor and dashed down it, opening doors as he went. This level seemed to be full of bunk rooms, but they all were empty and the water was getting deeper.

He was wading knee deep in water by the time he reached the final door in the corridor. He heaved against the combined weight of water and metal to open it, and what he saw inside made his heart stop. Chained to the wall at the far end of the room was Indiana. He wasn't moving, and he was completely under water.


	9. Chapter 9

Not wasting any more time Darwin threw himself into the water and swam towards the still form a few metres away from him. The body was barely floating just above the wall, a sure sign that Indiana had already inhaled water and that time was of the essence. Darwin scrabbled at the man's wrists, feeling around the cuffs that had been looped around a pipe bracket. With his feet braced against the wall and his hands gripping the small parts of the chain between Indy's hands Darwin heaved with all his might.

It felt like ages before he felt the metal give slightly. Trying harder, Darwin took a breath and morphed into rock, becoming heavier and tougher. The pipes below cracked and released a spume of hot water that threatened to scold them. However as soon as the bracket broke open with the pipes Darwin was shoving off and upwards. He swapped rock for flesh and shot upwards, using one arm to tug himself through the doorway and the other pulling the unconscious man along.

Darwin managed to drag the heavy man up onto his shoulder and then started hurrying back through the submarine. Once he guessed he was above the water level he stopped and gently lowered the man to the corridor floor again. Then he was posed with a problem, as he had to figure out how to empty the man's lungs of water and get him breathing again.

Knowing that the man was technically already dead, trying anything couldn't hurt. So he rolled him onto his back and gingerly pushed down on his chest. Very little water dribbled out of the man's mouth, so Darwin assumed he was empty. But one jab to the chest didn't do anything. So Darwin kept pushing down on it repeatedly, trying to somehow kickstart the heart. As a desperate last ditch attempt he also clamped his mouth over Indiana's and breathed air into the man's lungs too.

Despite the feeling of despair that clung to him Darwin kept on pounding on Indiana's chest and breathing for him, until suddenly his efforts seemed to be rewarded as the body below him convulsed. The man rolled onto his side and curled into the foetal position, coughing up bile and shivering. Darwin sat to one side of the corridor against the wall to give the other man more space, and as he sat there he realised he was shaking from fear and exhilaration. However as he thought about it he didn't personally feel afraid, he'd been feeling panicked before but not afraid.

"Indiana?" he said quietly, and carefully placed one hand on the man's closest shoulder. "It's alright, you're safe."

He hissed as he was assaulted with a stream of images, chaotic and disjointed. There was enough to them for Darwin to realize that Indiana's brain was restarting, and he was reliving the last memories he had. Darwin winced as he saw the moment when Indiana woke up lying in the puddle of water, and felt how he had panicked as the water closed over his head.

"Indiana, you're broadcasting," he murmured, just loud enough for him to be heard above the hum of the still running engines.

Slowly the whirl of images and feelings dropped away and stopped, until Darwin could concentrate on their surroundings again.

"Darwin?" Indiana croaked out in a hoarse voice.

"You don't get rid of us that easy. Havok was chewing our ears off trying to get us to rescue you," Darwin chuckled.

"You saw that?"

"Yeah, sorry we weren't any quicker at getting to you. This submarine is like a maze," Darwin apologized.

"Well you still saved my life, though if we can avoid the kidnapping to start with," Darwin grinned as Indiana started joking again, a sure sign he was recovering. "What's happening now?"

"Shaw is somewhere and Magneto is going after him. Riptide is dead I think, and Emma is too. No idea about Azazel or Angel," Darwin shuddered as he remembered Emma's death.

"Then we better go check," Indiana sluggishly tried to get to his feet, but he was unable to sit straight upright as his bound hands hampered him.

"Hang on, the others have got this fight. We can wait until you're ready," Darwin tried to push him back down onto his back.

"It can't hurt to have back up, and the sooner I get these off the better," Indiana wiggled his wrists at the other mutant.

"Fine, but if Havok has a go at me for not stopping you you better back me up," Darwin groaned and moved to help Jones to his feet.

The two of them headed back up the corridor, Darwin letting Indiana lead and set the pace. He directed the man back to the hole in the hull and they were soon stumbling out into the sunlight. However that short distance seemed to take it out of Indiana and he groaned and sank to his knees in the shade of the ruined hull. He cast a tired eye over their surroundings, noting the damage and death.

Riptide's body lay close to their location, a gaping hole in his chest showing the danger of Havok's power. About ten metres away lay a pile of glass that Darwin knew was Emma's body. Thankfully no other bodies lay nearby which gave them hope that they were not doing badly in the battle. A flash of blue by the jet let them know that Mystique had managed to return to the relative safety of the jet.

"You didn't say we had all crashed," Indiana chuckled as he looked at the carnage of flattened trees and chunks of metal.

"How else would a submarine be on dry land?" Darwin retorted.

"As far as I was aware it wasn't," Jones replied, gesturing to his still soaking clothes.

Their easy joking was interrupted as two more yellow and black clad figures landed heavily on the sand in front of them. Darwin ran forward as one of the two stayed relatively still, whilst Havok jumped to his feet and ran towards the other mutant too. From the distance away he was Indiana wasn't sure but he guessed from the size it was Banshee.

Suddenly Angel appeared from over the ruined jet, firing fireballs at the three stranded in the open. Darwin immediately reacted, turning to stone and covering Banshee so that he wasn't in danger of getting injured. Havok loosely aimed himself in her direction and sent a bolt of energy at their one-time friend. The look of astonishment on his face when he managed to send one blast of energy at her, and that it scored a hit to her wing, was priceless. It easily beat her look of surprise as she fell face first into the sand.

"Knew you just needed to learn how to aim!" Indiana shouted over to him.

"Indy!" Havok cried happily and quickly ran over to him.

Or at least that was what he was planning, but he had barely made it half way when two bodies materialized on top of him and knocked him to the ground. Immediately one of them was gone again, just barely giving Hank time to stand up before his opponent was on him again. Havok scrabbled to his feet and searched for a clear spot to aim his blast at, but Azazel and Hank were too close for him to risk it.

"Can you do something?" Havok turned to him, remembering the last time Indiana had been in a fight with them.

"With pleasure," he gritted out, remembering how the red skinned man had happily watch as he was beaten into unconsciousness.

Hank was just turning to try to land a punch to the teleporters body when Azazel collapsed, clutching his head and screaming in pain. Hank didn't waste any more time and swiftly slammed his foot into the back of Azazel's neck, knocking him out.

 _'Charles, how we doing?'_ Indiana sent out hesitantly.

 _'Nice to hear you in the land of the living,'_ came back a clear reply.

 _'Did you see those memories too?'_ he groaned.

 _'I'd be surprised if the sailors didn't see them, '_ Charles chuckled. _'You've completely lost focus of keeping up your shields. As much as I can I'll maintain your shields for you until we can sit down and build them again.'_

 _'Thanks Charles,'_ Indiana mentally sighed in relief of having his privacy back. Even if Charles saw his thoughts, it was better than learning the younger mutants knew he was terrified of the upcoming fight. Mentally he shook himself and tried to get them back on track, _'Who's where in this fight?'_

 _'Erik's found Shaw, he was shielded from me somehow.'_

 _'The helmet, and the reactor room was mirror-lined,'_ Indiana supplied, after quickly forcing himself into Angel's brain. He knew he wasn't gentle, and he didn't care.

 _'Erik's breaking the mirrors,'_ Charles realized.

Indiana was forced to pull his attention back to the beach as the other mutants gathered around him.

"How you doing Gramps?" Havok was still grinning.

"I've been knocked out more times than I can count so I have a cracking headache again, Darwin had to revive me after drowning, and my wrists are killing me," Indiana listed. "But I've been worse. Fancy showing off your youthful energy and finding something to get these off me?"

"There's a repair kit in the jet that would do the trick," Hank suggested.

"Where is it Beast? I can dig it out whilst you bring him over," Havok asked.

"Beast?" Indy smiled at the nickname.

"Long story," Beast blushed slightly.

"Love to hear it sometime,"Indiana said but let it go in favour of struggling to his feet.

Havok dashed away to get the tool kit whilst Darwin and Beast hovered around in case their friend needed a hand. Banshee was keeping an eye on Angel, ensuring she didn't get up again. However he was distracted when a sudden scream of pain came from the group of three.

"What's happening?" Darwin shouted in alarm as Indiana curled into a ball, clutching his head.

"Help!" Havok appeared out of the jet. "Something's wrong with the Professor!"

"This one too!" Beast yelled back.

Seven people were forced to watch on helplessly as the two telepaths were left screaming their lungs out at some shared pain. To Beast it seemed to go on for forever until suddenly Indiana stopped.

"Indiana?" Darwin said hesitantly.

There was no reply as the man remained in his tight ball, hands pressed tightly to his eyes and over his forehead as if trying to block out reality. No one dared touch him and a terrified silence descended over the combatants as they stared between the huddled figure and the jet. Eventually the frozen tableau was broken as the Professor staggered out of the ruined jet, Moira, Mystique, and Havok hard on his heels with matching worried expressions.

"What the hell just happened?" Darwin shouted over to the apparently functioning telepath.

"Erik just killed Shaw whilst I was restraining him, I felt the pain and Indiana likely picked it up twice from Shaw and from me," Charles said regretfully.

Havok ignored the horrified chatter that started up and instead quickly moved to the motionless man. As his hands were easily accessible he wasted no time in gently placing the bolt cutters against one cuff and severing it. He hissed in sympathy as he saw the bleeding skin underneath, but didn't hesitate in freeing the other wrist.

"Come on Indiana, or I'll tell the professor that the damage to the navy ships was your fault," Havok joked desperately.

"No way would he believe that, my destruction is way more effective. There wouldn't be a navy left," the muffled reply a short while later had Havok laughing out loud.

"Well it was worth a shot," he replied and gently helped the man to sit upright. "How's the head now?"

"Even worse, thanks for asking," Indiana groaned.

Then the hull of the submarine rent apart at the top, causing everyone to wince in pain. "Can't we get any rest?"

The loud sound had gotten everyone's attention, and they watched in horror as Shaw's body was levitated into the open air, like a horrific puppet. Erik appeared behind him, wearing the familiar helmet. He walked to the edge of the metal lip and then let Shaw's body drop. Indiana was the only one who didn't wince at the sickening cracking sounds that they heard as the body hit unforgiving sand. Erik then gently floated down to the sand, and at first Indy wondered how he had done it. Then he noticed the metal on everyone's outfits, and realized he had manipulated the metal rather than himself. A very quick scan told him that he himself was the only one not wearing metal, and Indiana filed that fact for use later.

"Look, you all insist that Shaw was the enemy, that humans were worth defending and fighting for. But I feel their guns moving in the water, they are preparing to strike at us because they do not understand us. As always, humans fear what they do not understand," Erik shouted to them.

With their attention on the distant ships Angel got to her feet and quickly roused Azazel. Together every mutant, and Moira, stared out as the guns of Soviet and American ships alike turned and aimed at them.

"Tell me I'm wrong," Erik said, almost smugly.

Charles made his trademark motion of putting fingers to his temple. Indiana perked his head up as he felt the other telepath's awareness increase and stretch out beyond the beach. Through the link he could feel the individual thoughts of every naval man out there, rather than just a mass of clamouring voices that Indy was used to.

Although the clarity was a nice change, for once Indiana wished he couldn't hear what they were thinking, as every last man was fixated on eliminating the new threat that had appeared.

Indiana sat there, staring at their impending doom. Charles turned to look at Moira, and for the first time Indiana felt a trickle of fear from him as he shook his head.

Quietly Indiana Jones huffed as he faced impossible odds once again. Sometimes life just didn't give you a break.


	10. Chapter 10

While the rest of the beach froze in fear and dismay at being betrayed, three of them moved into action. Erik strode forward to greet the incoming bombs, a grin spreading from ear to ear. Charles dashed forwards to meet him, probably to try to reason with him and to create a plan. Indiana's action was far less grand, as all he managed to do was clamber to his feet, still a good twenty metres away from the pair. Charles' mutants stood in a huddle holding each other up and giving comfort as their end drew near, whilst Azazel looked ready to flee alone. Indiana ignored them all and headed where he felt he was the most use, trying to create his own plan.

Erik held up a hand almost leisurely, like a policeman directing traffic. And every single missile halted at his will.

"Erik, you said yourself that we're the better men, this is the time to prove that," Charles said desperately. "There are thousands of innocent men on those ships, they're just following orders."

Indiana winced at that, knowing even without being able to read Erik's mind that that was the wrong thing to say.

"I've been at the mercy of men _just following orders_ before. Never again," Erik snarled. And with that he flicked his hand and sent the missiles back towards their senders.

Both the telepaths exploded into action at that, Charles leapt on his friend whilst Indiana dashed the last few metres to join in the fray. He knew that Erik was much stronger and more versed in tough living, which included fighting. Charles probably had no experience of close combat and wouldn't likely last long. Indiana saw the younger telepath be blasted backwards as Erik repelled the metal on his suit. Indiana took over, slamming himself onto Erik in a half tackle, half falling.

"Get back!" Erik shouted angrily and tried to send him flying backwards.

However his attempt to make him fly backwards failed completely and Indiana remained where he was, using his mass to keep the other man pinned. Realising he couldn't release himself from Indiana's clumsy restraint Magneto desperately threw out a hand to regain control of the missiles once more. Although a number had collided and exploded, there were still easily one missile left for each warship facing them.

Knowing that there wasn't much left to try, Indiana also desperately mimicked Erik.

He almost dropped in shock, and pain, as he managed to halt the missiles. What followed was a battle of wills, Erik with his considerable skill and Indiana with blind desperation and determination to avoid a massacre.

"Erik, don't start a war you cannot win. You yourself are proof of how the little man can win against all odds. If you start this war then the humans will fight tooth and nail to eradicate us, and you will condemn all of us to persecution, slavery, and death," Indiana ground out as they both fought for the upper hand.

"They will never accept us!" Erik shouted in frustration, the missiles above them wavering dangerously.

"Some won't, but if you continue with this then every single human will see us as the enemy. Will you allow your hatred of a few lead to the extinction of an entire race? Are you going to become the next dictator, Herr Lensherr?" Indiana pushed.

"Don't you _dare_ compare me to that monster," Erik snarled, his anger stoked to new heights he tried desperately to regain control of the missiles.

That was all that Indiana needed, with Erik focussing too much on unleashing his anger on the navies nearby he wasn't paying attention to Indiana. As quick as a flash he grabbed a handful of sand and threw it into the eyes of the younger mutant, before ripping the helmet from his head. The sudden movement caught Erik unawares and Indiana shouted in triumph as he was successful.

Erik froze as Charles took control of his mind, and the other telepath slumped in relief. In the distance, ignored by the three of them, missiles fell from the sky and either collided or fell into the ocean. The fight wasn't over though, so whilst Charles held Erik in place and forced him to listen the college lecturer played his final trump card. It was underhanded but he was pretty sure it would work.

"Erik, I may not have lived through your experiences but I have seen inside your mind. Your hatred is justified, but seeking revenge on anyone who wrongs you will bring chaos and destruction. Rise above man and show them that mutants are an evolved and enlightened race. You don't have to become a hero, saving every human that faces danger, just stop trying to kill them," Indiana begged. "Think of all the future mutants you could condemn to the same treatment you went through if you force the world against us. How many more eight year old Erik's will be forced to watch their family's be murdered to force their mutations to activate?"

Indiana rolled off the other mutant and slumped into the sand, spent and barely able to stay conscious. "It's your decision. The world will judge you for what you decide today."

He waved at Charles to release the other mutant. Erik immediately sat up, but he paid no mind to the waiting armies floating offshore. Instead he stared down at his hands, not paying attention to the tear that rolled from his eye. The other mutants hovered nervously, waiting to see what his final decision would be.

"And what if they still try and destroy us on this beach?" Erik asked.

"They won't," Indiana said tiredly.

"How can you be sure?" Erik pressed.

"Charles has been running interference for me, I lost control of my telepathy after waking up again and accidentally started broadcasting. He shielded me whilst we were fighting, but I bet that whilst he was holding you still he couldn't do both?" Indiana lazily turned his head to look at Charles, who shook his head negatively. "So I've probably been feeding this fight back to those on the boats. Hopefully they will feel merciful."

"Charles?" Mystique called warily.

As they waited for their fate to be decided the huddle of mutants got closer. Angel started to hover nearer to her friends that she had recently tried to kill, and Moira walked closer to Charles. The only one who did the opposite was Azazel, who took one look at the scene and the change of heart that the others had and promptly vanished.

"Well there goes our ride," Banshee groaned.

"They're deliberating," Charles returned his attention to the naval officers.

"Any way you two can swing their decision?" Havok asked.

"Not sure, we can at least go and listen," Charles looked at the other telepath to see his opinion.

"I can't take myself, but if you want to drag me along for the trip then feel free. I used to have some friends in the army, some of them may be in contact with those out there," Indiana shrugged as he heaved himself into a sitting position.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

There was chaos on the ships and for once the captains and admirals on board didn't try to control it, mostly because they were still reeling from the images too. They had watched in awe as a plane somehow dragged a hidden submarine from the depths, and then both had crashed when a freak tornado blew up on top of them. Whilst the beach exploded with people running from both submarine and jet they remained neutral for orders, when they had all started seeing things. There had been shouts of confusion as the they started to see a white room filling with water.

Captain Ironside had just managed to get his ship under control again when more images assaulted them. These stayed a lot longer, and even the captain felt a bizarre sense of dread as he saw the missiles heading towards them... although they weren't heading towards them. Whoever was broadcasting the images tried to stop the missiles the mutant sent the rockets back at them, despite the pain it was causing him. Something he said caused the mutant to stop trying to destroy their ships, and the captain breathed a sigh of relief at last.

With the threat over for now the captain debated standing his men down, but without orders they stayed on alert. They had relayed the events back to command, and were waiting for someone to make a decision on what to do next. Trying to destroy the mutants had obviously failed spectacularly and he wasn't willing to try again. If they kept pushing their luck then those mutants that had defended them may give up.

He bent his head to rub his eyes tiredly, not wanting to be in this position at all. To start with leading the fleet against the Russians had been a straight forward task one that was a noble effort. Then firing on Americans had sat less well on his conscious, and the waiting was now killing him. He raised his head to look around him and realised that everyone had somehow frozen around him, some midstep.

 _'Sorry we have kidnapped you slightly Captain Ironside, but we need to talk,'_ a voice sounded in his ear.

He looked around desperately but couldn't see anyone. Guessing it was one of the mutants on the beach he took a deep breath and spoke back. "Who are you? Where are you?"

 _'We are on the beach, My name is Charles and my friend is Henry. We represent the group of mutants who unveiled the true reason Russia and America were prepared for war. We feel that considering the fact we averted a nuclear war we should at least be allowed to speak to those who are deciding our fate. Will you give us that opportunity?'_ the reasonable voice asked.

"How would I do that?" he replied.

 _'Either we can come aboard, or I can continue this link as you contact your commanders and you can speak for us,'_ the voice said again.

"I'll speak for you, if you'd release me?" Ironside asked politely.

Almost immediately the world resumed, with his men walking along as if they hadn't even paused.

"Get me a line to Command," he snapped at the communications officer.

Without even waiting for the connection to be established he strode over and snatched the phone off the cradle, in order to immediately be able to start the bizarre three way conversation.

"Captain Ironside," Colonel Smith said as the phone was picked up. "I hope you have a good reason for interrupting our meeting."

"I do sir. It may seem hard to believe but the mutants on the beach have made contact and wish to talk to you," the captain said calmly.

"Put them on then," the colonel ordered with a sigh.

"I can't exactly, one can speak into my mind and is communicating that way," Ironside grimaced at the bad explanation he was giving.

"Right..." the man said shortly.

 _'Perhaps if you introduce us?'_ Charles suggested.

"They call themselves Charles and Henry," Ironside relayed.

 _'Charles Xavier and Henry Jones,'_ Charles elaborated.

 _' **Hang on!** ' _another, rougher voice broke through causing Ironside to wince.

 _'Quieter,'_ Charles said gently.

 _'Sorry,'_ the captain assumed the new voice was 'Henry'. _'Say Colonel Henry Jones, Junior. Someone might know me.'_

"The two men are known as a Charles Xavier, and a Colonel Henry Jones Junior?" the captain said down the telephone. "They say that someone at Command may recognise their names."

It didn't take long for Ironside to hear a scuffle down the phone and another voice responded to his call. "Captain Ironside?"

"Yes sir?"

"General Ross, you said you had Henry Jones with you?" Ross asked excitedly.

"In a manner, they are communicating from the beach through me," Ironside explained again.

 _'Tell him this: Indy says that apparently surviving a blast in a fridge isn't such a good idea after all,'_ the second voice ordered quickly.

Feeling like a messenger pigeon he dutifully obeyed the ex-colonel's command.

"Ha!" Ross barked a laugh. "That's Indiana. What trouble has he gotten himself into now?"

"He says he's now able to read minds, been kidnapped in a submarine, and stopped an accidental war with Russia... And now he's stuck on a beach staring down both navies. He asks if you could perhaps help him out?" Ironside tried not to muddle the words that were sent to him.

"Tell him I'm on it, he'll be back on US soil soon," General Ross said before putting the phone down.

 _'Good old Bob!'_ the apparent ex-soldier crowed.

 _'Yes yes, good idea Indy,'_ the younger voice said. _'However, I feel we should probably leave Captain Ironside to his duties. Thank you sir, we're sorry to have inconvenienced you. We'll leave you alone now, and wait for a decision.'_

The captain didn't feel them leaving, but after a few moments of waiting anxiously he started to relax as he guessed he truly was alone in his mind again. Although he barely knew the two men who had approached him, they had never done anything contrary to their words, so he believed that they were telling the truth again. He gained a few odd looks as he stared silently at the beach, his men silently questioning what had just transpired. But he ignored them, it wasn't their job to question him.

After an age the communications officer called him over, the phone held out for him. "It's Command, sir."

"Command?" he said as he held the phone to his ear.

"Yes sir, we will," he put it down again, not needing any clarification of his orders.


	11. Chapter 11

Indiana felt the fear before he saw the boats.

Erik and Angel had both been remarkably quiet and cooperative since they had stopped the bombs, so they had all started to relax as they awaited their fate. Havok and Darwin had raided the submarine for unspoiled food and they had ended up having a very bizarre picnic using the toppled trees and chunks of metal as tabletops. Havok had prodded him until he had eaten something, but all Indiana wanted to do was sleep. However Charles had ordered them to keep him awake until he could be seen by a trained medic, as the other telepath was worried of head injuries causing complications. Indiana protested that nothing could make his mutation worse, but the others followed their orders and poked him whenever he looked like he was nodding off.

They were starting to get bored and a few of them had nodded off by the time they had their reply from Command. With his ability to read the people from a distance Indiana was the first to know that something was going on. Charles had been shielding his mind so that he wasn't broadcasting, but apparently not from receiving information. He had wanted to put the helmet on, but after Charles' reasoning he had agreed and watched slightly regretfully as Havok destroyed it.

"They're coming," he called to everyone around the beach.

Whilst the younger mutants leapt to their feet in preparation he stayed sitting, knowing that the men he could sense had barely left the safety of the warships.

"What are they doing?" Erik asked anxiously.

"They're bringing boats to us," Indiana explained with a shrug. "Beyond that I don't know, and I really don't want to go digging."

While he, Charles and Erik sat and waited the other mutants stayed standing. Moira started to pace, a bit uncomfortable at having to meet her fellow servicemen who tried to kill them.

Eventually six boats halted near the shoreline, and four men jumped into the surf. They approached the beach with weapons easily visible, but thankfully not drawn and pointed at them.

"Good afternoon, thanks for coming to see us," Charles began. "What's the plan for us?"

"We are to take you back to Washington where Command wants to talk to you," one of the soldiers supplied. "I have been told to say by Captain Ironside that your cooperation is appreciated."

"Havok, Angel, Banshee, you three together. Erik, Indy, you're with me," Charles split up the two mutants they were still not certain about.

The other four split into pairs and clambered into boats too, and the small fleet headed back to the warships. The Russian ships had retreated but were still lingering. It seemed that the majority of the American fleet would stay to guard them until they left to return home, but four ships had split away and were waiting to one side. Their smaller boats headed for these, and in turn the mutants were brought to the ladders so they could clamber up onto the lead ship.

Indiana heaved himself over the railing and onto the flat deck of the flagship. He hadn't spent much time aboard ships in the second world war, half the time it was purely a means of getting him to another covert mission across the globe. However many military customs were interchangeable, such as the one he followed as soon as he saw the captain. Although he technically would have outranked the man in front of him if he had still been in the army, Indiana still saluted the man respectfully. Captain Ironside nodded his acceptance of the salute and Indiana turned to help his friends onto the ship as they hadn't quite got the hang of climbing a moving ladder.

Captain Ironside wasn't sure what he was expecting, but the people who faced him looked completely normal. Some of them were wearing odd uniforms of a dark blue and yellow that looked not that disimilar to flight suits. One girl was wearing very little, leaving her legs bare and her back exposed to reveal long wing like tattoos. The oldest man who had saluted him as he came aboard was clad in black trousers and a shirt, with bare feet. Of the lot he looked the most bedraggled and although he tried to hide it probably the most worn out.

"Captain Ironside?" the man spoke.

"Yes, and you are?" he replied, already guessing who he was from his voice.

"Indiana Jones, this is Charles Xavier," Indiana introduced the pair. "What are your orders for us?"

"We have prepared rooms for you all, it would be appreciated if you refrained from roaming the ship too much," he said, not exactly ordering the mutants.

It was difficult, he was supposed to be in charge of the ship and therefore any visitors to sail in her. However he knew the destructive power that the group wielded, and nothing he could say would stop them from ripping it apart if they so wished.

"We understand," Charles interjected quickly before he could start to worry overly. "We would appreciate it if we could visit the deck if that was alright."

"I'll assign a couple of men to be your escorts," he nodded, relieved that for now the group seemed happy to cooperate.

"Would it also be possible for a few of us to be seen by your medics?" Charles jumped in.

Ironside saw Indiana glare at the shorter, younger man. Charles didn't even turn to him as he replied, "You're going to get that head seen to Indy. If you've been knocked out the number of times I think you have I'll be amazed if there's no fractures."

"I'll take those who need it to them," Ironside offered.

As it turned out it was only 'Indiana' that needed to be seen, the younger mutants insisted that they were alright. One, the girl not in the uniform, refused to be seen and argued she would treat herself. As eight of them were led away to their quarters Charles and Indiana stayed together, apparently silent but their facial expressions told a different story. It was surreal for the captain to _know_ that the two were conversing without even making eye contact or hand gestures.

"Sorry, I have to remain with Indiana to shield him," Charles explained after a pause.

"Shield him?" Ironside asked as he lead the way towards a different part of the ship.

"My powers aren't controlled yet, you probably know what happened on the beach without actually being there, captain?" Indiana asked.

"Those images, that was you?" Ironside shuddered.

"Like I said, I don't have control. Charles does, so if he stays with me we shouldn't have any trouble," the older man said firmly.

It turned out that Jones was a terrible patient, much to Charles' embarrassment, Ironside's amusement, and the medic's annoyance. He constantly insisted he was fine, despite all of them seeing how raw and cut up his wrists were from being bound. Although he spent the entire time grumbling about not being treated the man eventually submitted himself to a full check, but was proven correct when the medic merely prescribed him some painkillers and rest. With his wrists swathed in bandages Indiana happily followed the captain back to their quarters.

After that very few of his men saw the mutants until they landed back in America. They seemed to prefer to stay as a group, and were happy to congregate in their rooms or the corridor just outside where there was slightly more room. The only one he saw regularly was Indiana, who apparently seemed to suffer from some kind of claustrophobia. Considering the images that they had been forced to watch, Ironside could quite understand the man's reluctance to stay near to the sound of rushing water without an escape route.

However well behaved his passengers were, Captain Ironside was grateful when they spotted the harbour they had been aiming for. As soon as they landed his men went about their usual routines of checking the ship, whilst the mutants were escorted to the deck. Most of them were looking wary and unsure again, however Indiana and Charles seemed completely at ease. Whether it was just the latter being able to see everything was alright from the former's experience Ironside didn't know, and to be honest he had had enough of trying to guess how it worked with the pair's abilities.

The mutants had barely made it to the deck when they were hailed by a voice from below.

"Indy!" A voice shouted from the shore.

"Bob!" the oldest mutant perked up immediately.

He dashed to the edge to check his suspicions were right before dashing down the ramp. Charles quickly thanked him for taking them home before he and the rest of their team followed.

"Christ Indy, we have to stop meeting like this," General Ross said as they shook hands.

"Hey I wouldn't say no to a quiet life, but it never seems happy to give me a rest," Indy grinned.

"Well at least this time you aren't radioactive," Ross clapped his old friend on the back. "And who are the rest of your motley crew?"

"Charles Xavier, Magneto, Angel, Banshee, Havok, Beast, Mystique, Darwin, and Moira MacTaggart," Indy listed quickly.

"Interesting names," General Ross smiled at them all. "But then any friend of Indiana's is likely to be eccentric. I have cars waiting to take you wherever you need. However I would like to debrief you on what happened."

"Indiana, Moira, and I can do that. The rest I would rather not get involved," Charles said quickly.

"But-."

"We are grateful for the assistance given to us, but if there are people less friendly towards our sudden appearance I would rather you guys weren't in the firing line," Charles cut through Raven's protests. "Please?"

"Fine," Mystique nodded reluctantly.

"No offence meant," Charles looked back at General Ross.

"None taken, not everyone is open minded," Ross agreed.

So they split, most of them taking lifts back to where they had left their own cars the day before whilst the three of them headed after the General.

Charles and Moira sat in silence in the car whilst the two old friends chatted the entire car ride to the debrief. It was obvious from their outside view that the general and archaeologist were good friends, as Indiana held no secrets back from the man. And the man was surprisingly open minded, taking the information given to him calmly and with an open mind.

"You don't seem surprised by Indiana's story," Moira cut in when there was a brief lull.

"Indy had some of the most bizarre and impossible missions during the second world war, but he still had the highest success rate out of any field operative. Some people started to think you were blessed by some deity," the two friends laughed at that. "You spent more of the war undercover or behind enemy lines than you actually did in our uniform."

The light atmosphere dissolved as soon as they reached their destination, which turned out to be the President's War Room.

"Everyone's still holed up in here?" Indiana asked in surprise.

"The Russians are still on our doorstep, and although you destroyed their nuclear missiles they still pose a threat of shore bombing," Ross replied gravely.

"Well hopefully we can reduce some of the threat," Charles said as they started walking through the corridors down to the underground room.

"What's the plan?" the archaeologist at his side asked.

"Protect Charles, keep the younger mutants out of it, offer our help, and try not to start a war between our kinds," Charles listed off as easily as if he was talking about the weather.

"So no pressure to get this right then," Indy chuckled humourlessly.

"This is going to be a long meeting," Moira agreed.


	12. Chapter 12

No one relaxed when they reached the house again. Angel gaped at their surroundings until they came to their senses and Darwin and Mystique took her on a tour. Havok and Banshee nervously walked around the grounds not speaking much, whilst Beast disappeared to his work rooms to apparently work on something. Erik walked off on his own, and they all spotted him standing just outside their living room staring at the giant satellite dish.

The day slowly melted away and with no news they started fearing the worst. At seven in the evening a car started driving up the long winding drive to the house and Havok, who spotted it first, alerted the rest to its arrival. Only when the occupants climbed out did they relax, seeing it was two of their number.

"What happened to Moira?" Beast asked.

"She stayed for further debriefing, and then to return home," Charles said, a hint of sadness colouring his voice.

"It's for the best, she has a career ahead of her and being associated with us might really hamper her," Indy reassuring placed a hand on his shoulder.

"And the military?" Erik asked sharply.

"They are more concerned with the Russian fleet for now but there are a few who are interested in the capabilities of mutants on the war front. As they know who I am, I promised to be an adviser of sorts for them," Indiana explained, taking the lead form Charles. "Not that I know much, even about my own mutation."

"And us?" Erik pressed.

"I've convinced them to leave you all alone, it is in their best interests for you all to be allowed to continue training and helping mutants," he revealed.

"I bet they didn't agree that as easily as you are putting it," Mystique said knowingly.

"When I pointed out what Russia could do with a team like ours they very quickly realised that having some friendly mutants on hand couldn't hurt," Indiana grinned. "They tried to demand us all to be signed on and become part of their plans. However I managed to argue you more freedom. As long as we don't start creating a mutant army to overthrow the President they'll leave us be."

"For now," Erik said, experience souring his happiness of being free.

"Anyway, Indiana needs a tour," Charles shot Erik a look, promising a long and awkward discussion.

Without hesitation Havok and Banshee dragged him off to see the grounds, Mystique and Darwin trailing after them laughing. Despite having to deal with the military minds and beauracracy of the War Room Indy was feeling rested enough to enjoy the tour without fear of being overwhelmed. Charles had sheltered him during the meetings, giving him the space he needed to think clearly to negotiate with the military minds they faced. However any kind of shields that he had built up before being kidnapped had disintegrated from the constant head trauma. With only eight minds in the immediate vicinity the flickers of thoughts that danced around his mind were disconcerting but not debilitating. He focused on the tour he was being given rather than the happy whispers coming from Havok, or Angel's debate on which ice cream to have on the other side of the house.

"There are like hundreds of bedrooms here," Banshee was chattering away. "We tried to count them all and gave up. And so we don't get bored or lost we all picked rooms along here."

Darwin pointed out his room, with a piece of paper on it. Indy chuckled, recognising the old sketch Havok had done in the old base.

"This is yours," Mystique gestured to the door in the middle of the hallway, and in the middle of Havok and Darwin.

Indiana slowly smiled as he noticed that his door too had a piece of paper on it.

"I put it on your old door, but you didn't get time to see it," Havok explained.

"It's a good likeness of my Webley," Indy complimented him.

Gingerly he pushed open the door to view his new room. It was large and airy, with a window coverings half the far wall giving him a view of the lake and the oak tree below. On the bed sat his old battered case, and he quickly crossed the room to it to check what they had managed to salvage. Inside sat all his clothes, with the gun and whip still lying at the very bottom. He started panicking as he wasn't able to see anything else, until he ripped his leather jacket from the bag and felt a hard lump inside.

"Sorry, your new book got a bit battered. That old one seemed fine though," Mystique apologised.

"I don't care much for the newer one, that's just to pass the time. Losing the old one would have been a blow," Indy sighed in relief as he held the book to his chest.

"What is it?" Darwin asked as they walked a little way into the room behind Indy.

The light was fading slowly so the room was starting to darken, but they could see lots of handwriting, sketches, and even more notes in the margins. The man quickly flicked through some of the pages, apparently to check that a few loose pieces were still inside the book. A page that seemed to have a map on it was the last piece that he checked and replaced with great care.

"My Dad's work, his Grail diary," Indy explained.

"Grail? As in Holy Grail?" Banshee snorted.

"Yeah, it's in a canyon south of Alexandretta," he said absentmindedly.

It was only as the four teens around him erupted into chuckles that he realised how little the group actually knew about him. After the amusement died down he turned to face them and merely raised an eyebrow.

"Really?" Darwin chuckled.

"You can't expect us to believe that the Grail is real," Mystique joined him in his incredulity.

"Believe what you want, but I drank from it," Indy shrugged. "It saved my father's life after he was shot."

"Shame there's no way of you showing us your memories," Havok said wistfully.

"There is," Mystique grinned and dragged Indy by the hand out of the room and searched for something.

After that evening it became a ritual that instead of drifting off on their own, or trying to entertain themselves with the television, the mutants would gather loosely around the living room. Charles and Indiana would sit next to each other, the former with his fingers on the latter's temples. And the archaeologist would replay a memory of one of his adventures. Whilst it showed the younger mutants more of the world they lived in, it apparently became a good exercise in control as Charles only acted as a fine tuner, Indiana had to do all the hard work of organising and controlling the memories he replayed.

Unless someone had a specific request, like on the first night, Indiana chose anything at random to share. Some were short snippets of different locations around the world to show the youths more civilisations. Although he had hundreds of adventures to share Indiana stuck to his archaeological trips, finding new civilizations or relics long lost. So his hunt over the years for Coronado's Cross, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Holy Grail.

He had just showed them some of his journey across India to Pankot Palace finishing as they headed down into the tunnels, and avoiding his behaviour with Willie, when Havok picked up on something. Which lead into more daytime lessons as he begged the lecturer to show him how to use his 'close range weapon'.

Between showing Havok and sometimes some of the other mutants various target practice skills, or lessons with the bullwhip, Indiana quite often had something to occupy his mind. Which made some of his own lessons more bearable. Charles had continued to give him private lessons in controlling his mind, and whilst he was making progress it was not as fast as he hoped. Indiana was no longer broadcasting his own thoughts to the world whenever he got distracted or emotional, but that was it. He was still being inundated with voices, and leaving the house would be impossible to go anywhere with more than ten people around.

After a particularly frustrating session Indiana was walking alone in the grounds, resisting the urge to punch something. Charles had been trying to get him to shield as he bombarded him with book quotes. He hadn't managed it, and had childishly stormed out at the end. There was an oak tree near a lake, and Indiana sat against the trunk and watched the water flow past and brooded, trying to figure out why he couldn't get the simple concept to work.

"Am I interrupting something?" a timid voice asked from behind him.

Indiana turned and peered around the trunk, spotting Beast standing meekly a little way away.

"No, why?" he forced himself to sound calm and friendly.

"I may have made something that could help you," Beast fidgeted with something in his hands behind his back.

"Really?"

Beast stumbled back a little as Indiana leapt to his feet and dashed towards the genius. "What have you got?"

"I didn't manage to get that good a look at the helmet, but I think I understood the theory of what the Russians had done with Shaw's gift," Beast began.

"You've made another helmet?" Indiana asked.

"Not exactly," the youth pulled the object from behind his back. "Put this on."

"Put _my own_ hat on?" Indiana said with a grin and obediently jammed the familiar object onto his head.

As soon as the brim was touching his ears the world was muffled slightly. Indiana blinked in surprise as he saw Beast watching him curiously, but his thoughts were no longer pressing into the archaeologist's mind. Gingerly he searched further afield, and although he knew that there were a number of people around he couldn't really hear what they were thinking.

"How is it? Can you hear me?" Beast asked worriedly.

"There's people, but I don't have to listen to everyone. It's like standing on a street and hearing a loud television being played in someone's house: if I pay attention I can hear, but I can ignore it," Indiana scrabbled to describe it.

"So it isn't perfect yet," the genius filed away for later.

"Who cares, this is infinitely better!" Indiana ran over and hugged the youth. "Thank you!"

Although Charles didn't fully approve of the modifications to Indiana's hat, and still insisted on them having daily lessons, the archaeologist still wore it whenever he could. Not only did it protect him from the other's voices, it also stopped them from picking up his own thoughts. Even Charles couldn't argue that the younger mutants not picking up swearwords was a good thing.

They had just finished another session in the expansive grounds with the bullwhip, with Angel and Mystique watching on in amusement and were heading back to the house. However they heard a loud rumbling coming from the front of the house and went to investigate. The army had held their side of the agreement so far and they had been left alone, but they still let Indiana take the lead as they approached the front of the house with some trepidation.

In front of the mansion stood a youth with carefully styled hair in a duck tail just disembarking a well looked after motorbike. He was wearing a dark leather jacket, dark jeans and a grey T-shirt. Three of them relaxed as they faced the newcomer, but Indiana had more experience with surprising appearances and remained wary.

"Can we help?" Mystique called.

"I'm looking for a Professor Jones?" the newcomer asked uncertainly.

"You've found him," Indiana replied as he lead the three towards the biker. "Why?"

"You're a friend of Doctor Oxley?"

"Harold Oxley, the archaeologist?" Jones clarified.

"Yes, him," the youth nodded.

"We were, I haven't seen him in twenty years though," he said apologetically. "Why?"

"They're going to kill him," the greaser said worriedly.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

"Start from the top," Indiana ordered as he set a bottle of coke on the kitchen table in front of the newcomer.

"Oxley helped raise me as a kid, like an honorary grandad of sorts. He use to read to me before bed, didn't matter what the book was, his voice was better than a glass of warm milk at sending you off," he smiled at the memory.

Indiana mirrored the smile, remembering his experience of debating with the man. It didn't matter how stressed Indy got, Harold's voice always got him to calm down.

"The name's Mutt Williams," Mutt said belatedly.

"Mutt? What kind of a name is that?" Banshee snorted.

"Banshee," Indiana said in warning, a split second before Charles spoke.

The mutant held his hands up in apology as the two main conversationalists turned back to each other. "That's Banshee, Angel, Havok, Darwin, Beast, Mystique, Charles, and Erik."

Mutt nodded at them in greeting but immediately ignored them in favour of the man he actually had intended to visit. "Six months ago Mom got a letter from the Ox sent from Peru, said he was going after the Mitchell Hodgkins skull."

"Mitchell-Hedges skull," Indy corrected him. "Ox and I were obsessed with them at college."

"Well the Ox is still obsessed, said he'd found one and this one was real and he was going to Akator with it," Mutt carried on.

"Akator?" Indy said in surprise.

"Akator," Mutt confirmed.

"What's Akator?" Darwin asked.

"You already know it, just by a different name," Indy hinted.

At the blank looks of everyone else he chuckled and carried on. "The Conquistadors searched for this mythical lost city in the Amazon. They called it El Dorado."

"You're shitting me?" Havok laughed.

"Havok," Indiana reproved, then relented. "Just because it's a myth doesn't mean it isn't real."

"Why would Ox be taking the skull there?" Mutt asked, ignoring the rest of them.

"The skull supposedly came from there, having been stolen in the sixteenth century. There is a myth that the one who returns it gains control of its power."

"Mom thought he was off his rocker," Mutt agreed with some of the disbelievers. "She went down to Peru to find him and bring him back, only she got kidnapped by some people who apparently were looking for Ox. She managed to escape and call me to say she was mailing that letter to me. She was certain that if they didn't find that skull then they were going to kill her and the Ox, and that I should find you to get help."

"Can I see the letter?" the archaeologist held out a hand

Mutt rummaged in his pocket and pulled a creased envelope out. "I don't think it'll be much help, it's jibberish."

"No, I think it's Koihoma," he muttered back.

"Koi-What?" Mutt frowned.

"A pre-Colombian language, it's extinct and perfect for sending secrets in," Indy tried to explain.

"What does it say?" Beast asked curiously.

"No idea, I'll need a book to translate it," Jones admitted.

"Where can we find that?"

"Either my house or the library at Marshall College for certain."

"Let's go then!" Mutt said forcefully.

The two were on their feet and heading for the door when Charles stopped them. "You can't go alone."

"Why not?" Mutt asked in annoyance.

"If people have your Mom, they are likely looking for you," Charles pointed out. "It can't hurt to have help."

"Who's going then?" Banshee asked.

"I'm coming," Havok said without hesitation.

"There's five seats in the car," Raven pointed out.

"I'm going," Charles' announcement wasn't a surprise.

After a short argument, those who wanted to go quickly collected their bags and headed to the garage. Soon, half the mansion's occupants were leaving with a motorbike on their tail. None of them paid attention to the black car that appeared behind them an hour later that then followed them back to Marshall.

* * *

 **A/N: 04/05/2017 So a quick change of some of the story above, I had a stroke of inspiration and needed to add a bit. Plot remains the same, but a bit of future story explaining has been added. Cheers!**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Some of the last chapter has been updated, purely to help the running of the rest of the story. Nothing major, but I recommend you going back and**

 **reading it again. Thanks!**

* * *

"It's definitely nicer being here this time around," Mystique said with a smile as they walked through the front door of Indiana's home that evening.

"This won't take long," Indy said, ignoring the jab in preference of heading straight to his shelves.

"We can't stay here long, if your mother sent that letter I'd guess they want it back," Erik warned.

"How would they even find us?" Havok asked.

"This shouldn't take long," Indy assured him as he flicked through a couple of books, not bothering to go into the intricacies of espionage this time around.

The rest of them fell into an expectant silence, no one got comfortable as they assumed they would be leaving shortly.

"I was right," the archaeologist said after a while. "It's Koihoma."

"Can you speak it?" Mutt asked excitedly.

"No one knows if it was ever a spoken language, but I can definitely translate it," he replied as he started scribbling down words.

"Clever Oxley," he crowed, slamming the book shut and looking up at the others from his desk. "Leave it to him to write a riddle in a dead language: 'Follow the lines in the Earth that only the Gods can read, Which lead to Orellana's cradle, Guarded by the living dead'."

"And is that any use to us?" Erik asked as the five looked at each other in confusion. He was the first to break and give in.

"He's talking about the Nazca lines, drawing in the desert floor created millennia ago. Only the Gods can read them because the Gods live up there," Indy pointed to the sky. "We're going to Nazca, Peru."

"Everyone got their passports?" Mystique grinned.

With the answers found they all headed off again. It was fully dark as they left the house, so at first they didn't realise they had company. However when the four suits materialised out of the darkness the six of them instantly froze.

"FBI?" Erik asked warily, well aware of the risk of them being taken and detained for research.

"Come quietly Dr Jones," one of them growled out.

"KGB," Indiana hissed in annoyance.

"We can't use our powers here," Charles said quickly to Erik who looked to be gearing up for a fight.

"Why not?" Erik retorted.

"Because this is Indiana's neighbourhood, if he wants to return he can't exactly explain how one of his friends flattened four men with a car," Charles shot back.

"Can I at least stop them firing their guns?" Erik asked in a sarcastic tone.

"Fine with me," Indiana chuckled. "I have a plan."

"We're all ears," Mutt muttered.

"I'm going to surrender myself, and try and take them out. How good are you guys at brawling?"

"Four on three isn't great odds," Havok said as Mutt and he nodded.

"It'll do," Indiana noticed they were out of time as the Russians started to walk towards them.

He pretended to hesitate, which caused the men to draw their guns and aim them loosely at the much larger group. As they expected, his mood shifted and he raised his hands in submission and walked towards them compliantly. However when he reached them he punched the nearest one in the face, the well placed and unexpected blow knocking him outright. Before the man had even finished falling Indiana had spun and punched at another of the men, who just about managed to react and move out of the way. He tried to fire his gun, and stared dumbfoundedly when it failed to fire. So Indiana punched him in the face again and laid him out.

Havok and Mutt jumped into action as the first man started to fall, but were not quick enough for the two remaining men to land some blows. Whilst Erik was making sure the guns couldn't fire any projectiles, he didn't consider stopping the Russians from moving them. As Indiana turned to face the third man, he was just in time to turn and his jaw made contact with a gun. Stunned from being pistol whipped, Indy fell backwards as his senses fought to catch up with the world.

By the time he came around enough to struggle upright again the fight was over. Havok and Mutt had struggled but managed to fell a man each, and the four suits were unconscious around him.

"Nice job," he commented as Havok offered him an arm to help him up.

Without waiting for anyone to investigate the sounds of the scuffle four of them bundled into the car, whilst Mutt dashed to his motorbike and kicked it into life. He was surprised when the oldest of their group jumped on behind him.

"I'll direct you to the airport, the car can follow on," Indiana explained.

"What if we get separated?" Mutt asked.

"They'll keep up, don't worry. If we do get split then it is more important that the two of us stay together to rescue Oxley and your mother."

Mutt didn't argue that point and smoothly pulled off into the road.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

Mutt had to hand it to the old guy, he wasn't bad in a fight. His methods were rough and unconventional, but a lot more effective than the fancy wrestling and boxing moves his past teachers had tried to make him master. He had no idea what the two older guys had been muttering about when they spoke of powers and stopping guns, but there being no bullets fired had made everything a whole lot easier.

With it being nighttime the air was cool, made worse by the speeds Mutt was coaxing out of his bike when the roads allowed. Although he was mindful of staying with the car tailing them, he made a game of making them try and keep up with him. He was used to the types of weather that came from riding a bike, and he was surprised that the older man behind him had been dressed for the same conditions. He couldn't quite understand how an archaeology lecturer knew how to land a punch, and why he dressed in a leather jacket and fedora. With a long ride ahead, Mutt decided to dig for answers.

"You can take a hit, I'll hand that to you," Mutt called over his shoulder at the professor clung to his back.

"Thanks," came the dry reply.

"So what are you? Eighty?" He was glad that their travelling hid his smirk.

"Not quite," Jones replied.

"How did you learn to fight?"

"The same way you did I bet, you can throw a good punch," the man called back.

They continued on that vein for a while, Mutt throwing in the odd sarcastic jab, as the car carried on following. Night had fully set by the time they reached a small airport, that was surprisingly busy for the time of day. There were virtually no large planes in sight but many small light aircraft were being serviced or checked after the days flight. Whilst Mutt and the others lingered by their car Indiana strode off into the gloom.

Half an hour later he was back, a short black haired man in tow.

"This is Javi, he is flying down to Nazca via New Mexico and is prepared to move takeoff to tonight for us," Indiana explained.

"What about the car and my bike?" Mutt asked.

"They'll stay here, his cousin works at this airport and can take them to storage for us."

"If she gets damaged..." Mutt began.

Indiana held a hand up to stop him, "trust me, they'll be safe. Come on, we need to head out now before our slot closes."

"What about border control?" Mystique asked.

"What about it?" Indy grinned.

Mutt laughed at his innocent expression and followed the man happily across the tarmac to a silver plane. It wasn't anything large or flashy, but it was obviously well looked after and more importantly ready to leave. There was little inside of the plane for now, so the six of them happily piled into the empty hold and braced for takeoff.

Mutt had never flown before, and didn't fancy sharing that nugget of information. However the professor seemed suddenly very interested in learning about how he bought his bike, and what its capabilities were. Before he knew it, they were an hour into their flight without him noticing and most of Jones' friends were asleep. Mutt quite happily followed their lead after the older man suggested it, although he did notice that Charles and Henry stayed awake next to each other for a long while after he tried to fall asleep. The last thing he noticed was that the old man had taken his hat off for the first time since they had met.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

Mystique hadn't travelled much in her life, she had stayed in America with Charles for most of it until he had gone to Oxford to study. Even then, apart from flying to England they hadn't left the city. So the dash to Cuba had been exhilirating and a welcome exploration of more of the world. And now she was standing in the middle of a dusty, hot, and crowded city. The locals around her were wearing an array of colours and styles of clothing, in mixed levels of dirtiness and wear.

The group huddled around a table in a corner of a busy market street, trying to avoid the attention of the locals in order to not have to buy anything or be moved on. Although all of them had initially tried to help find the missing people it had become very clear early on that few of the locals wanted to talk openly with the outsiders. Apparently the newcomer to their group, Mutt, spoke pretty decent Spanish as well as Charles, neither of them made any headway. Erik had a little more success and was received better than the others, but still not enough to push their search onwards. Whether it was their look, or their attitude that dissuaded people from talking to them Mystique didn't know. Only those who sold trinkets or food paid them any attention, and the owner of the small bar they had found seemed happy to sell them drinks, but avoided conversation.

Whatever problems they had, Indiana faced none of the same. He had ensured they had rooms at the nearest hotel, if you could call it that, and had given them some of the local currency to buy food or drink. Then with barely a backwards glance he had been ready to head off, only stopping when she and Havok had kicked up a fuss about being cooped up inside and Mutt about wanting to help. He had been smiling when he shrugged and let them come along, and with hindsight Mystique realised why.

Another similarity between the locals that Mystique noted as she looked around was that everyone wore hats to protect them from the sweltering midday sun. She had initially thought that Indiana's was just to make him look more like a cowboy, but now she saw the practicality behind the item of clothing. As she glanced around and wiped sweat from her forehead she almost missed the familiar fedora as it wove through the crowd towards them, accompanied by two more hats moving in the same manner.

She nudged Havok who had been playing with his bottle of coke, he hadn't been the only one to buy the familiar and blessedly cool drink, and jerked her head in the direction of interest. Erik and Charles noticed too and looked over, whilst Mutt carried on flicking and playing with his switch blade. The four of them had been slightly alarmed to learn he was so adept with the blade, but hadn't remarked on what seemed to be a hobby of his.

The crowds cleared between them and the other man, and the group watched as he animatedly chatted with the two locals. Over the hubbub of the market she could hear a few snippets of conversation, and she looked in surprise as she failed to recognise any of the words. From his tales they had learnt that he spoke German, Russian, French, and Hindi, but apparently there were a whole load more that he hadn't revealed.

After a while Indiana shook their hands and clapped them on the shoulder before splitting off from the two. He navigated his way through the shifting crowds much easier than any of them had managed throughout the day and soon stood in front of them.

"Finally, they remember seeing Oxley a few months ago. Apparently he stumbled into town, ranting and raving about stuff. The police tried to help him but eventually locked him up in the sanitarium. It's this way," Indiana gestured down the street.

"This place has a sanitarium, go figure," Havok snorted as they all stood and hurried to catch up with Mutt and Indiana.

"What language was that?" Mystique asked. "It didn't sound like the Spanish Mutt was using."

"Quechua, it's a local Incan dialect that isn't used much outside of this region," Jones explained.

"How many languages can you speak?" Havok had picked up the same thoughts that Mystique had had.

"About 27 probably," Indiana said after a pause. "Learning the culture and language of an area is critical if you want to get anywhere with the locals."

"When did you learn Quechua?" Mutt asked.

"It's a long story," the older man tried to rebuff.

"We have time," Erik said, obviously curious about the origin of the information.

"I rode with Pancho Villa, a few of his men spoke it so I learnt as we went."

"Bullshit!" Mutt exploded, pretty much summing up what Mystique was thinking.

"Well you asked," the fedora wearing man shrugged.

"Pancho Villa, _the_ Pancho Villa?" Mutt continued.

"As in the Mexican General?" Havok clarified.

"Yes, and technically I was kidnapped by his men," the man seemed to think it was important to clarify that.

"By Pancho Villa?" Mutt asked again, seemingly unable to get passed that fact.

"It was in the fight against Victoriano Huerta," Indy spat to the side, a grimace on his face.

Mystique guessed it was a tradition that Villa's men had followed, and one he picked up. "How old were you?"

"About the age you lot are, maybe a bit younger."

"You're parents must have flipped," Havok said, still shaking his head from the revelation.

"Things were, tense, at home. My father didn't approve of violence, so my adventures afterwards didn't go down any better," Indy muttered ruefully.

"What could be worse than joining the revolution?" Mutt asked.

"I lied about my age and joined the Belgian army with a friend I met in Villa's army, and spent the majority of the Great War on various war fronts," he revealed.

The five of them merely stared at the man next to them, who carried on walking calmly down the dusty street towards the sanitarium.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

None of them seemed enthusiastic to enter the sanitorium, and only Mutt and Indiana showed any determination to press on. With very little difficulty Havok and Mystique excused themselves and lingered outside in the cool of the arched gates. They happily settled to people watching whilst the other four disappeared into the dark depths of the building after a nun. Mystique shivered as the sounds of shouts and screams echoed out of the darkness before being cut off, presumably by a closing door.

"Still can't believe they have a sanitarium here of all places," Havok muttered to her.

"You get mad people everywhere," Mystique shrugged, not exactly disagreeing with him.

A lot of the people they saw walking past were dull and didn't attract their attention, but after a while the two made a game of pointing out people who they wanted to make stories about. A short, slightly tubby man smoking a cigar became a cartel worker. A woman wearing a new skirt became a fashion designer. It was stupid and pointless but it made the half an hour they were waiting for the others go quicker.

Charles looked pale when he exited the dark interior of the sanitarium and immediately Mystique knew something was wrong. Mutt and Indiana were talking animatedly about a graveyard somewhere nearby, whilst Erik was casually putting on a pair of sunglasses.

"What's wrong?" she asked quietly so the others couldn't hear.

"The thoughts of those in the sanitarium," Charles shuddered. "I decided to check whether Indiana would likely handle being in there alone without help. After a few seconds I didn't want to even risk it."

Mystique rubbed his arm comfortingly but they had little time for more than that as the two leather jacketed men started to shout at them to hurry up. Thankfully the hustle and bustle of the streets soon distracted them, along with the amusing arguments between Indiana who knew the local customs better, and Mutt who impatiently wanted to charge ahead to the graveyard. Eventually Indiana's experience won over and they hiked towards the graveyard, aiming to get there to search under the cover of darkness.


	14. Chapter 14

Indiana paid no mind to the thought of walking through a graveyard at nighttime. After clambering through the catacombs under Venice, and having to navigate through a burial chamber of the Well of the Souls in the dark, Chauchilla Cemetery was more pleasant to be in. He ignored the general discomfort of those around him, and blocked off the whispers of thoughts that he picked up from them. Out here in the middle of nowhere he would be happy risking taking off his hat to hear the other thoughts around him, but he didn't. In the middle of the busy marketplace he had made the fatal error of taking off his fedora once. An old lady had invited him into her house as she looked for something, and out of respect he had taken it off as he crossed the threshold. The tidal wave of thoughts that hit him almost sent him to his knees. Only through hurriedly running through Charles' lessons and exercises kept him on his feet, and from then on he kept his hat firmly on his head.

"Grave robbers will be shot!" Mutt translated the sign illuminated by lightning for the rest of the group.

"Good thing we're not grave robbers," Indy called back cheerfully over the loud wind.

The storm had been a surprise to all of them, even the locals. However they were used to how temperamental the weather could be and had battened down the hatches to weather the storm out. Few had been about to even see them heading up the steep hill, which Indiana had been grateful for. Although he had been projecting cheer, he knew just how badly desecrating graveyards went down in every culture. As he looked around he could see how the graves had been strip-mined, revealing the bodies below. However, that was likely done by locals and that was considered an insult enough, and they were probably related to those buried below. If they were caught, as outsiders, there was no chance they would leave the graveyard alive.

Whilst he knew the likely risks of going through a very old graveyard he wasn't in time to tell the others about all of them, plus it would have taken till sunrise to list them all. So as a learning exercise he left the other five to make whatever mistakes they would.

Mystique and Charles were spending a lot of time staring down into the pits, horrified yet fascinated at the revealed skeletons. Havok was uneasily watching the lightning, and Erik and Mutt were ignoring it all in favour of keeping up.

"This way down," Mutt energetically jumped onto a ladder.

He barely made it three steps down before the ancient weathered rope gave way and the ladder disintegrated beneath his feet. Indiana hid a smirk and leisurely strolled down the longer but safer staircase path.

At the bottom he generously offered his hand. "This way up?"

"Yeah," Mutt muttered ruefully.

"I think I saw something move!" Havok called nervously.

"The longer you stare the more shadows start to move," Indiana shouted back over the wind. "Keep up, or stay outside of the graveyard."

Unsurprisingly the lagging three were almost immediately by his side once more. He lead the way down further, looking for a likely looking pit or tunnel to head down.

His decision was taken from him eventually though as they headed towards the deepest sections of the graveyard. Havok just moved his hand from a support beam and had stepped down the flight of stairs the others had descended when a dart buried itself into the wood.

"Down!" Indiana called urgently.

The other five dropped to the relative safety of the ground. Indy scurried back and plucked the dart from the wood to quickly inspected. He quickly sniffed it and looked at the design. "They're poisoned."

"How can you tell?" Erik asked.

"Experience," Indiana wryly answered.

"What do we do?" Havok searched the area desperately for their attackers. Of all the mutants he was the happiest to not use his powers unless it was life or death, so he felt rather vulnerable facing a seemingly invisible foe.

"Keep heading down, then are using passages to attack us," the archaeologist pointed out a few of said passages. "If we enter the lower burial chambers they might not be able to get us there."

"This is the last tunnel," Mutt had used the brief pause to search ahead, and reappeared from the deepest hole.

"Then we start there," their leader started manhandling the others so that they would get the hint and hurry down into the safety of the tunnel.

Being immediately closed it, cut off from the wind and lightning, caused a few of them to pause at the sudden change. Wary of the danger still behind them Indiana gently pushed them onward and down the winding corridor deeper into the earth. Near the entrance they had picked up a couple of shovels and lanterns and as they walked they lit the lights to better see the way.

It didn't take them long to reach the apparent end of the tunnel, festooned with protruding roots and wispy cobwebs. Odd lumps hung from the spider's work, meals long left and had grown solid.

"Dead end," Havok looked around them.

"Maybe," Indiana shuffled past the wedge of humans and felt around, looking into every crevasse with one of the lanterns.

"What's that?" Erik pointed to where the light failed to light up a section.

With the lantern put closer they could all see a cobweb faintly moving in front of a skull. Mystique shuddered as Indiana irreverently poked a thumb and finger into the eye sockets, and a couple of fingers under the chin, and lifted it from its recess. Behind sat a rather well maintained rope, which he grabbed and yanked.

The wall to one side opened, revealing a further passage.

"Neat," Mutt grinned and followed right on Indiana's trail to see what lay beyond.

Despite being built on a cliff edge the tunnel still headed downwards, now with the aid of steps cut into the stonework too.

"How far down does this go?" Mystique voiced the thought everyone was sharing.

"Why would they dig so far down to start with?" Charles added.

"Safety, there's less chance of your dead being disturbed," Indiana called back, his voice echoing slightly in the stone passage. "The more important people got better burials too."

After a while they started to encounter skeletons neatly arranged in alcoves in the stairway walls, and most of them stopped to stare at the body.

"Look at its head," Havok said in horror.

"Her," Indiana said after a pause.

"What?" Havok managed to tear his eyes away to look at the archaeologist.

"Her head, you can tell from the jaw and hips," Indiana lectured.

"Screw her jaw, what about her _skull_?" Mutt agreed with the other young male.

"Infant head binding was a cultural tradition amongst many tribes, from ancient Mayan civilizations to Nazca Indians. Some saw it as a sign of beauty, others a tribute to their Gods," Indy shrugged.

"God does not look like that," Mutt gestured to the skeleton.

"Depends on who your God is," the eldest carried on. "Kali, the Goddess the Thuggee cult were worshiping, has four arms."

Whilst the others slowed to stare at the long dead people they passed Indiana trotted further down the stairs to the bottom. Where it leveled out there was a way forward, but the floor started to level up towards the ceiling. Used to the weird hidden pathways often incorporated into ancient structures he carried on until he was on his knees, then crawling on his belly. Behind him he could hear the clattering of feet as the others finally started to carry on down, but soon it was drowned out by the sound of grating stone. A few shouts warned him that his disappearance wasn't taken well, but Indiana wasn't worried as very rarely was a passageway only one way. He quickly shifted forwards to check that the route was still heading the way they wanted, then crawled back to tilt the passage the right way.

"Come on then, I can probably shift this with two more people on it," Indiana waved his hand to beckon the first two.

Charles and Mystique gingerly mimicked him, and the disc slid over once more, then Indiana went back to fetch the other two.

Finally, after what felt like hours of winding stairs and paths to those unused to adventure, they reached what seemed to be a much larger, open area. Dusty steps lead downwards to the centre of the area. A quick glance around showed no further tunnels.

"Don't touch anything," Indiana warned.

He didn't pay attention to the responses of the others, instead focussing on the immediate area. He gestured downwards to the steps, "footprints."

"Two sets, the same size," Mutt studied them. "They look about the same size as Ox's feet, it could have been him twice."

"Good thinking," Indiana smiled.

"Hey, are these bodies?" Havok called over.

The two leather clad men walked over to see what the others had found. Seven huge lumps of bandages formed human shapes and were dotted around the room. Surrounding each lump was a large pile of coins, and golden plates or cups. Mystique looked seriously interested in some of them, but Charles held her back warningly. She huffed but aquiesced, letting the archaeologist go ahead first.

"That one's open," Erik pointed to one of the seven lumps which had been shredded.

They gathered around it, and Indiana was the one to lean forward and shift the bandages to the side. The body underneath wore ornate gilded armour reminiscent of medieval styles found in Europe. Indiana whistled appreciatively.

"Conquistador design, perfectly preserved by the wrappings," he explained. "Orellana's men may have gotten out of the jungle in the end."

"But why did the local's wrap them up and bury them here? They weren't natives," Charles asked the expert.

"Perhaps they paid them off, or they may have hoped it was seen favourably by the Gods?" Indiana shrugged. "Or as outsiders at the time they may have been regarded as favourites of the Gods."

"Why is he wearing a mask?" Mutt gestured to the face that Indy had just revealed as he spoke.

"Orellana was known as the Gilded man, his lust for gold was greater than any other man alive at the time. Perhaps this is the man himself?" Indiana searched for more clues.

Gingerly he picked up a few coins and checked the detailing, fiddling with them as he muttered to himself. The others stood back a little as he looked around. He huffed and turned to them again. "These coins are five hundred years old, they fit the time period when Orellana was here. Someone's been here recently but left everything where it was, so what were they looking for..."

He trailed off as he saw the gold coins in his hand suddenly shoot off and stick to the breastplate of the long dead Conquistador. With a grin he bent back down and heaved the armoured skeleton forward, letting out a shout of triumph as he spotted something.

"Hold this," he said to no one in particular and shoved the body in their direction.

Mutt was the one closest, and soon found himself with an armful of desiccated human. He scrunched his nose up in disgust but dutifully held it whilst the archaeologist retrieved something. Only when he saw the older man move away did he dump the body back in its resting place and fervently start brushing his jacket down in an attempt to clean it.

"Look at it," Jones breathed, catching Mutt's attention and he looked around at what everyone else was looking at.

Indiana couldn't tear his eyes from the skull as he gingerly moved it around to admire the workmanship. "Cut across the grain, even with today's machines it would shatter. Who could have carved this?"

No one answered, and they all gathered around to look at it. Mutt pointed at the back of the skull, "It's elongated, like those skeletons."

"Perhaps they brought it from Akator, a prize beyond comparison," Indiana theorized. "They head for the coast but become ill, or get to squabbling. The locals find them, and bury them. Few hundred years later Oxley stumbles across them and takes the skull, but can't find Akator and returns it here?"

"Return, like on the walls of his cell," Erik says questioningly.

"He brings it back to where he found it... I don't think this is where he meant it should be returned to though," Indiana shook his head.

As he turned to better put the skull in the light of the lanterns, some of the nearby coins on the ground jumped and stuck to the skull. Perplexed, he peeled them off and watched them jump back to the crystal from his loose fingers.

"Gold isn't magnetic," Mystique said in confusion.

"Neither's crystal," Havok continued.

"What the hell is that thing?" Erik summed up for them all.

"Whatever it is, we need to find Akator next. Hopefully if we finish what Oxley started it might help us find him on the way," Indiana decided.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

It was day by the time they reached the surface again, the air was still once more as the storm had apparently blown itself out a while ago. However they didn't have the chance to stop and admire the scenery, or the Nazca lines below them, as they were immediately faced with a row of guns. Behind the guns were tall, pale skinned men in green uniforms wearing matching grim expressions. Then from behind them another man appeared, wearing a panama hat and light coloured clothes.

"Hello Jonesy," the man said with a cocky smile.

Indiana didn't reply, merely he threw himself forward at the man, letting out a snarl at the same time. The others behind him didn't react quick enough to catch him, although they too surged forward once they realized what was going on.

He barely made it half way when something hard connected with his neck, bringing him to a crashing halt on the dusty floor. He groaned in pain and tried to get up, out of the corner of his eye he saw the large rock that Dovchenko was wielding. However he wasn't quick enough, and soon the object hit his head again and everything went black.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Fanfiction is being a little temperamental with me at the moment, I am putting updates in but it keeps flashing up with errors. So hopefully these chapters are popping up for you guys. For my own reference, I will be adding publishing dates for each chapter from here on out. 08/05/2017.**

* * *

Indiana awoke to a killer headache and a metallic taste in his dry mouth. Both were quite familiar and provided enough information for him to know what had happened whilst he was out: he had been knocked out, drugged, and smuggled across the country again. Without opening his eyes or even moving he tried to guess what was going on around him. It wasn't that bright outside, suggesting he was inside or it was night time. There were voices, many of them, shouting and laughing whilst music played. He was upright with his head on his chest, so he was likely bound to something.

And thankfully he had his hat on.

With no other information available to him he decided it was time to face the world again, so he lifted his head and wrestled his gunky eyes open. He desperately wanted to scratch the spot where he had been injected with the knockout drug to relieve the itch, and also rub his eyes. All he could settle for was rubbing his face as best he could against his shoulders as best he could, which didn't help much.

It turned out that he was bound to a metal chair with cuffs built into it, so there was little hope of breaking free. He snorted at the effort that the Russians had gone to to set up a camp, going to the lengths of lugging a heavy chair around. Against the walls of the tent he was in sat various bits of machinery, some looked like recording equipment and others scanning equipment. A small section to his right was partitioned off, but the rest of the tent was open and brightly lit giving him nowhere to hide.

"Он проснулся," a voice called from outside the tent.

"No rest for the wicked then," Indiana huffed as he realised someone had been watching and waiting for him to wake up.

The first person through the tent door was not who he was expecting, although afterwards he should have guessed. Mac, looking incredibly at home amongst the raucous Russians, swanned in as if he owned the place. From the bottle in one hand and the cigar in the other Indiana guessed he might.

"That's the third time I've saved your life," Mac held up four fingers, showing how inebriated he was.

"And how many times have you sold me out?" Indiana growled, tensing his hands and wrists in an attempt to make the metal give.

"You're not thinking of the big picture here mate," Mac waved his hand, and the half empty bottle, through the air.

"No, _you're_ not," Indy retorted. "Why is it you only think about money?"

"Not just money, a gigantic pile of money! And it's waiting for us at Akator!" Mac said excitedly. "Don't you see Indy, an entire city of gold which we could take. We'd be richer than Howard Hughes."

"Blood money, every nickel of it," Indiana spat back at his once friend. "And I'm going to make sure that not even a dime enters your pocket."

Before Mac could reply the door of the tent was jerked open again and two figures entered. Mac whirled around and saw them, and even Indiana could see how he sobered up in their company.

"I was just checking he was really awake, Jonesy can be a bit woozy after a head injury. There was this one time..." Mac trailed off as he saw the matching stony looks from the Russians. "Shall I just jiggle out of here?"

And with that he swayed off, leaving the three of them in the tent.

"How fortunate we weren't able to kill you Dr Jones," Spalko said by way of greeting.

"Where are my friends?" Indiana decided to cut through the verbal dance and headed straight for the important topics.

"They are safe, for now. You decide whether they stay that way," Spalko shrugged lightly. " _Now I become Death, Destroyer of Worlds._ You recognise those words."

"It's Hindu scripture," Indiana replied slowly, not really understanding her angle.

"And a quote from your own Dr Oppenheimer after they tested the atomic bomb. It was nuclear intimidation, heralding this latest age of warfare," Spalko supplied.

Indiana gave her a blank look. Partially it was still because he had no idea where they were going, but also because he knew such a look often annoyed people who thought they were lecturing to an idiot. He had been on the receiving end of it a few times, and from the small frown on Spalko's pale forehead Indiana knew she was just as frustrated as he had been.

"We shall usher in the next era, one that no atomic bomb can stop," Spalko announced dramatically. "Psychic warfare, invisible and untraceable. That was Stalin's dream."

"That's why Oxley hid the skull again, he knew you were after him and it. So he tried to stop you before you got him," Indiana said slowly with realisation.

"That skull was not made by human hands, surely you knew as soon as you saw it that it was no mere deity carving," the Russian woman pressed.

"What, so the advanced technologies supposedly in Akator were created by aliens?" Indiana scoffed. He had a much more plausible theory for Akator's advanced civilisation, but he wasn't going to share.

That sudden thought made him stop in fear. Spalko spoke of psychic warfare, what if she was one of them? Since the last time they had met Indiana had had his eyes opened and his horizon's broadened, and the idea of a telepath on the Russian's side sent a shiver down his spine. Now more than ever he wished he had control so that he could check to see whether they had a reason to worry.

"Why do you deny what you have seen with your own eyes? The New Mexico specimen was not the first we had found," Spalko continued, not noticing Indiana's sudden hesitation. "You know of the legends."

"Return the skull, gain its powers," Indiana summarised quickly. "I know, but what makes you think that Akator exists? That the skull actually does what you think it does?"

"Because we are certain your friend has been there," Spalko smirked and stormed to the door. Dovchenko held it open for her as she shouted an order.

Indiana's stomach turned to ice as he saw two soldiers shove a dilapidated figure through the door. It was undeniably Harold Oxley, but Indiana had never seen him in such a state. Firstly he was garbed in local clothes, a ragged shirt and patched trousers, and a once colourful poncho with a tattered hat. Secondly, he had months of growth on his hair, and probably weeks of beard on his chin. Finally he was stick thin, mostly skin and muscle and little else on his body besides. He had never been anything more than lean, but now he looked gaunt.

Despite Indiana recognising him, Oxley showed no sign of knowing anyone in the room around him. He didn't make eye contact or seem to pay attention to anything, he merely rambled on and continually shuffled on his bare feet.

"Harold, Oxley, listen to me!" Indiana said urgently. "You've never been this interesting in your entire life, you're faking right?"

As the man started quoting poetry Indy was lucky enough to grab hold of the edge of the ranting man's poncho and held tight.

"Listen, it's me, Henry Jones Junior," he gritted his teeth and spoke his real name.

But the man continued to spin, shuffle, and ramble, oblivious to the world.

"What have you done to him?" Jones rounded on the two Russians, and Mac who had snuck back in. "He's a brilliant man, how badly did you torture him to make him lose his mind?!"

"We didn't do anything, he was like that when we found him," Mac cut in quickly. "It's the bloody skull."

Indiana had been distracted by Oxley and Mac, so hadn't noticed how the other Russians had moved around the tent. It was only as Spalko pushed a table in front of him, and hefted his own backpack onto it did he start to realize her plan.

"He is the divining rod, the one to lead us to Akator. But we need an interpreter, someone to make sense of him," Spalko said lightly as she gently placed the skull in the centre of the table, on a folded towel to stop it moving.

Dovchenko in the meantime had been playing with some of the equipment to the side of the archaeologist. Without warning he pulled Indiana's hat from his head and dropped it onto another table nearby.

Immediately the thoughts of the sixty people around them swarmed through Indiana's mind as he had no time to prepare. He gritted his teeth and tried to make it look like he was attempting to resist their plans. However what he was doing was desperately trying to scrabble for control, before something bad happened. In the middle of a camp there were too many things to set on fire, or explode, or send flying.

The hulking Russian carelessly jammed a plastic circlet over his head, leaving a trail of wires between the machine and their prisoner.

"The skull's crystal shape stimulates underdeveloped parts of the human brain. Oxley stared at it for too long and went mad. Let's hope you are more successful," Spalko said curtly.

Indiana was too caught up in trying to avoid screaming already that he didn't realize his own danger until too late. He almost immediately locked eyes with the sockets of the skull and was trapped, staring at the inanimate object like a hawk at a rabbit. He was unaware of the Russian's continued rambling, or the fact the EEG needle was scribbling furiously. All he was aware of was the skull, which seemed to start pulsing rhythmically.

"Stop!" Mac said suddenly in fear.

With the others behind him they didn't see the reason for the Brit's look of horror. Spalko hurried around to the front of their captive and swore vehemently in her native tongue. Not even bothering to order someone else to do it she quickly grabbed the empty backpack and threw it over the skull.

Indiana slumped, suddenly boneless.

The contact may have been brief, but the impact was enough on the already barely controlled telepath. He felt nothing as the Russians pulled him from the chair and lay him flat on the floor, or as the medic tried to stem the flow of blood from his nose and ears. All he could hear was the voices, whispering in languages he didn't know. However alongside the voices was one that he recognised, gravelly and cultured.

 _'Return._


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: Enforced day off as the car is broken! Instead of being productive with life, here is another chapter. 13/05/2017.**

Charles sighed as they were finally released from their cramped crates and were escorted through a camp to a tent. He had enjoyed being in Nazca despite the heat and hostility, and although dashing through a graveyard hadn't been his idea of fun the exploration through history had interested him.

And then the Russian's turned up.

None of them had acted quickly enough to do anything, they had been too distracted by their find to pay attention to their surroundings. Indiana had tried to attack the odd one out in the Russian group, but the tallest and meanest looking of the lot sent him to the floor. He was going to stop the man from moving, but by that time the others had jumped them and were starting to inject them with something. When they had Mystique and Havok under their control he had quickly lost his will to fight them in case they hurt them.

He assumed that the next few days were blurry as he only woke up occasionally and only for short periods. A few of hose times he was lucid enough to remember to check around him for his friends, and could sense that they were in similar predicaments to him. However he was reassured that they were still alive and still together.

They weren't drugged when they finally seemed to stop moving, and he could hear the sounds of each crate being pried open and the occupant released. When it was his turn he stared around them warily, noting how many men were facing them. His hands had been bound behind his back which made moving more difficult as he crawled out of the crate and struggled upright to stand alongside Erik and Mutt.

"Now what do we do?" the greaser asked.

"There's about fifty of them, we can't take them out like this," Charles said grimly.

"What, so we remain their prisoners?" Erik hissed back.

"For now, we need to find out why they want us, and what they know of your mother and friend," Charles directed primarily at Mutt, but also glanced meaningfully at Erik.

The older man sighed but nodded and settled down as the other two joined them. But before they were whole again as a group they were pushed into motion. Charles looked back over his shoulder and saw Indiana. Apparently the others did too and they started to resist and protest being separated. Indiana was still unconscious and was being dragged around by two guards holding him under his armpits. The leader of the Russians, the one who had knocked the other man out to start with, held a gun to Indiana's head and they quickly settled down and allowed themselves to be lead away.

"So who's here?" Erik came back to him once they were left alone again.

They had been shoved into a tent, their hands still bound, and left alone. Mutt and Havok sat to one side trying to work their bindings off, while the other three sat together patiently.

"Fifty two Russians, us in here, Indiana, two British men, and another American, a woman," Charles searched around them.

"So Oxley and Mutt's mother are here," Mystique realised.

Charles nodded in agreement. "If we find out what is going on here we could escape with all of us and take the skull."

"That's not going to be easy, even if there aren't any fences to keep us in," Erik said grimly. "With so many of us there are going to be a lot of eyes on us."

"Well we do have some advantages," Charles pointed out.

"What happened to not using them and drawing attention to ourselves?" Erik queried.

"We're in the middle of the jungle, I doubt there are many people around to see us," Charles countered. "The only thing is we cannot allow any of the Russians to make it home to tell their side about mutants."

"Agreed," Erik said with a worrying grin.

"First step should be telling Mutt though I guess?" Mystique gestured to their travelling companion.

The other two nodded in agreement and managed to organise the five of them into a close circle. Charles didn't really know how well their story would be received, and unsurprisingly Mutt was resistant to the idea to start with. It was only as Charles kept reading his mind of private stories, and Erik manipulating the metal lantern hanging above their heads, and finally Mystique morphing to look like Mutt himself, was he convinced.

"Why didn't you do any of this before?" he asked suspiciously.

"There aren't many mutants around, those of us you met at the mansion are some of the few that are known to the government. What with all the fear of the Russians and war how do you think the public would react to this?" Charles asked.

"Fair point," Mutt muttered.

"What's important is you are on our side with this, we can escape but we are going to be needing to use our abilities," Erik pressed forcefully.

"I have no idea how you guys do what you do, but yeah sure I'm on your side. If it means we can get out of here with Mom and Ox then I'll do anything," agreed Mutt.

"Well I can reassure you there, I'm pretty certain your mother and Oxley are here," Charles smiled.

"How are they? Where are they?" Mutt said excitedly.

"Calm down," Charles smiled. "Your mother is a few tents over, she is safe and well. Oxley is in the camp."

"And how is he?"

"It's hard to describe, his mind seems muddled," Charles said gently.

"Mom was worried something had happened to him. You saw his cell," Mutt said dejectedly, but he rallied. "We'll figure out how to fix him."

Charles nodded in agreement and was about to carry on when something caught his attention. Shouting started up outside their tent, and although they couldn't speak Russian they could tell from the tone that something had gone wrong. There was a lot of running, and things being carried.

"Professor?" Havok asked worriedly.

"Something went badly wrong..." Charles searched through the minds of those outside. Suddenly he gasped in fear and seemed to go rigid. "Indy."

"What's happening?" Erik hissed, frustrated but mostly afraid of what the telepath would reveal.

"I can't feel him," Charles said worriedly.

"What do you mean?" Mutt asked.

"I can sense everyone in the camp, when we were travelling I knew you were all nearby despite you being unconscious. Indiana's completely disappeared," Charles said as he fought off the panic.

"He's dead?" Havok whispered.

Charles didn't reply but seemed to keep searching, and the others stayed in barely controlled silence as they waited. Finally the telepath looked in one direction and seemed to concentrate.

"Charles?" Erik said questioningly.

"Something is very, _very_ wrong," Charles murmured.

"What happened?" Mutt got in before anyone else.

However he wasn't quick enough, as before Charles could reply their tent door was wrenched open. Three Russians stood above them, two with guns. The group quickly broke up and turned to face their captors.

"One of you is a doctor, yes?" the third Russian asked.

"I am," Charles said, not exactly lying as they didn't specify what kind of doctor.

"You will come with us," he said without preamble, and pulled the telepath out with them.

He was prepared to stumble around with his hands bound, but as soon as the two guards had him surrounded they released his hands. Charles tried to take note of everything around him as he was marched through the camp. There was one central huge bonfire, surrounded by dozens of tents of various sizes. In the gloom at the edge of the camp he could just make out the shapes of large vehicles. Charles' opportunity to look around was cut off abruptly as he was shoved into another large tent across the campus from where he had been.

Charles immediately ignored the equipment around the room, the suspicious object covered on a table near the middle of the room, and the worrying metal chair. He only had eyes for the prone form on the floor, and the huddle of people around him.

"Jones, Henry," Charles said urgently as he wiggled between some of the Russians to his friend's side.

A metal dish sat to one side with a large number of heavily stained pads dumped inside it, which gave Charles some information on the problem without having to go digging. It was worrisome that apparently they had had to use so many pads to stop the bleeding, but blood loss shouldn't be a problem. He gingerly placed a finger over the archaeologist's throat to feel his pulse and checked his open eyes for response.

"What did you do?" he asked, and tried to not sound accusatory.

"We didn't do anything, the bloody skull did," the British man who had helped kidnap them replied, a tinge of worry in his voice.

"What is wrong with him?" A woman asked authoritatively.

"He's catatonic, something made him go into shock. All we can do is keep him warm and calm, and wait for him to come out of it on his own," Charles explained carefully.

"How long will that take?"

"I don't know, it depends what that skull does," Charles said honestly. "I would like to stay here and keep an eye on him."

"Good, alert me as soon as he wakes up," the woman ordered one of her soldiers.

And with that, apparently with no thought of concern to the results of her actions, she left. The huge Russian left too, after wrapping up and taking the lump off the table. A lot of the men went with her, until Charles was left alone with the unresponsive man, and two guards. With a bit of miming, as the guards apparently didn't speak English, Charles was able to request blankets, and carefully created a warm nest around the other man to try to help his recovery. Although they were in the humid and warm jungle the comfort of numerous blankets wouldn't hurt.

With the other man taken care of Charles started to wonder if he should let the others what was going on. They would definitely be worrying where he got to, but without anything positive to share he didn't think there was any point in worrying them about anything they couldn't change. What he did do with time on his hands was to search the mind of the man he was looking after in an attempt to figure out what had happened.

Gently he tried to ease into the mind of the man lying below him, to protect both of them from any kind of backlash from their minds coming into contact. However he needn't have worried, as there was no kind of activity in Indiana's brain, no thoughts or recollections at all. It was as if a white cloud had settled over his mind, making it impossible for actual thoughts to occur. Charles tried to clear the fog using a few tricks but nothing worked, and the fog remained. After a while he gave up and carefully retracted himself from the other's mind, and instead just sat staring at the other man. A quick check of his watch told him it had been two hours since he had left the others.

He sighed as he realised not contacting the others now would cause just as much worry as telling them the bad news.

 _'Erik,'_ the telepath tried.

 _'Charles? What's going on?'_ apparently the other mutant was listening, and responded immediately

 _'Nothing good, how are you all?'_

 _'We've been left alone since you left, it's been quiet and dull. What happened to you?'_ Erik pressed.

 _'They made Indiana look at the skull and it's done something. He's in shock and unresponsive. There's a cloud in his mind, I don't know if the damage is irreparable.'_

 _'Shall I tell the others?'_ Erik offered

 _'They're worrying?'_ Charles checked.

 _'Yeah, about both of you.'_

 _'Then we've got to let them know. Tell them I'm okay, and Indiana just needs rest and hopefully he'll be better by the morning,'_ Charles decided.

 _'Is there anyway of contacting you if things change?'_ Erik asked.

 _'I'll keep in contact, how about every couple of hours unless something happens?'_

 _'Sounds good, keep an eye on Indy, I've got this group covered.'_

 _'Just don't do anything stupid Erik, we can't afford to risk his safety,'_ Charles reminded him before cutting the link.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

Mutt stared at the others in the tent. After being told their secrets he couldn't really believe that they could do as they said, but after all of the crazy bull with Ox and the skull he wasn't sure what was truth anymore. They had been waiting for ages for Charles to return, and in the meantime no one had really bothered trying to make conversation. It was obvious that the Havok guy was incredibly worried about the archaeologist, and Mystique about Charles. And he was worried about Oxley and the fact his mother was so close yet so far away.

"Hey, Charles got in contact," the voice of the oldest guy was easily heard by all of them.

"What did he say?" Mystique asked immediately.

"He's on the other side of the camp I think, Indiana is ill," Erik started.

"What happened?" Havok jumped in.

"They made him look into the skull, and somehow that caused him to get knocked out. Charles is hoping that with some rest he'll be back to normal."

"Any news of my Mom or Ox?" Mutt checked.

"He didn't mention them, so he probably hasn't seen them," Erik said regretfully.

"So we've got to wait even longer?" Havok groaned, just as impatient as Mutt.

"Unfortunately, he's going to check in every couple of hours unless something happens," Erik was just as annoyed at having to remain a prisoner.

"Better find a way of getting comfy on these then," Mystique looked distastefully at the roll mats.

"It's going to be a long night," Mutt agreed.

As it was they didn't have to wait two hours for Charles' next update, or even all night for something to happen. They had just gotten comfortable and had once again falln into silence when the sound of many feet approaching their tent had them sitting upright once more.

"Mom!" Mutt cried as a familiar figure was shoved inside.

"Mutt!" the woman ran forward and embraced her son, who had no way of returning the favour thanks to his bound hands.

"Young man I specifically told you not to come after me," she scolded him.

"You didn't not in the phone call or the letter," Mutt said with a weak smile, obviously still to grateful to see his mother safe that he didn't put too much effort into the joke.

The woman broke away from the hug to check he was physically alright before turning to the rest of the tent. "And who are your friends?"

"Erik, Havok, Mystique," Mutt nodded at each in turn, and each nodded back politely. As he turned around he also spotted another figure. "Ox!"

Mutt wriggled around his mother and headed over to his friend. "Ox, Ox it's me."

But the older man didn't recognise him, or even acknowledge that he had been addressed. He continued to mutter lines of poetry.

"Is there any way of fixing this?" Mutt asked worriedly.

"He's not gotten better since I've been with him," Mutt's mother sighed.

"So, introductions?" Erik chuckled.

"Marion Williams, Harold Oxley," Marion gestured.

"Pleasure," Erik nodded at her. "What can you tell us about the camp?"

"It's been here a whole, they've got good supplies and a lot of equipment," Marion summarised. "I don't know where we are, but there's not been any locals come near us so we must be far from a town."

"So no accidental rescue, we're doing this solo," Havok guessed.

"Yup," Marion agreed.

"Well this is going to be fun," Havok groaned.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: Don't you hate it when you have actual work that gets in the way of creativity? However the annoying essay arguing the badger cull in the UK is now done! Date posted 22/05/2017.**

Although he tried to stay awake, at some point Charles succumbed to sleep. He checked in with Erik twice before that happened, so he knew that the rest of the prisoners were being kept together in their original tent. When Erik had mentioned Oxley's state Charles had wanted to check his mind, but the man was asleep and despite his skill he didn't want to risk unsettling the man further.

Charles sat up and uncurled himself from the blanket he had wrapped himself in and looked around, noting the guards were still there and that his charge was still cocooned in blankets.

"Indy!" he said happily, noticing that the man was sitting upright.

Charles' joy turned to worry as the man looked at him, but no recognition came to his eyes. Charles slowly walked further into the tent and crouched in front of him, and slowly extended a hand. When the man didn't react Charles touched his fingers to his temples and searched his mind. The same fog covered Indy's mind, seeming to make conscious thought impossible. Although it seemed that any automatic or subconscious reactions could occur, things like speech and analysis was being suppressed by the cloud.

"This is not good," he muttered as he retreated from the archaeologist's mind and sat in contemplative silence. Absentmindedly he reached out to a discarded object nearby and returned it to its rightful place on Indiana's head.

Their silence was broken as the tent was opened from the outside and a group of people stormed in. Charles ignored them out of protest of what they had inadvertedly done.

"Well?" the cutting female voice said impatiently.

"I have no idea what you wanted to achieve, but Indiana's mind is broken," Charles said carefully, trying not to reveal too much of what he knew.

"He's not like the other one," the British man replied.

At the sound of the voice Indiana flinched. Charles started in surprise and tried to observe his patient, both visually but also with a careful tendril of mental probing.

"What was that?" the woman asked again.

"It seems that something has caused his mind to shut down, only reacting to outside stimulus as needed. So he probably has memories of you, and is reacting to them. I'd doubt he will be able to speak or respond to a direct question," Charles theorised.

"Then he's useless," Charles frowned at that declaration. "Take them back to the others, we will have to figure out a new plan."

He barely had time to stand on his own accord before Charles found himself being grabbed by both shoulders and pushed out the tent. He tried to wrench his head around to see how Indy was faring, but the two guards who had his arms were a bit too enthusiastic in their restraining him. And before he managed to see he was being pushed headfirst back into the prisoner tent.

"Charles!" Mystique cried happily when he appeared.

"What about-" Erik began.

However before he could finish his sentence the second missing prisoner was bundled into the tent.

"Indiana Jones, nice of you to finally turn up," Marion said in a snide voice, which no one missed was covering an undertone of fear and relief.

However when she received no reply the woman actually stopped to look at the man. "Indy?"

The swell of chatter caused by numerous people asking questions over each other stopped as they all looked at the silent man.

"What happened?" Havok asked, repeating the question that seemed to be the favourite over the last 24 hours.

"The same thing that happened to Oxley I'd guess," Charles said somberly. "His mind has been scrambled by the skull."

"What do we do?" Erik asked.

Marion seemed to have taken charge of their tent, and its occupants. While the mutants huddled towards the rear of the tent she took the silent man and prodded him until he was lying down on a mat near to Oxley. Mutt hovered nearby, seemingly worried for the man and also still protective of his mother.

"We need to figure out exactly how much Indiana can do, and whether he will return to normal if given time to recover. If not, we need to figure out how to fix it," Charles spoke.

"Indy said something about the skull's power at the start," Mystique recalled. "Something about a myth?"

"Return the skull and gain control of its power," Erik supplied.

"So we've got to get that skull to Akator..." Charles realised the problem.

"But Oxley can't tell us where it is, and no one else knows where it is either," Havok groaned in frustration.

"Maybe that's why they wanted Indy to look at the skull," Mystique suggested. "Although they only wanted him crazy enough to understand Oxley, and it backfired."

"Hopefully it'll continue to fail," Erik said, then quickly explained at the glares of the others. "Although I don't want more crazy people, and I do want those two fixed, can you imagine the Russians in control of something that can make people go mad from looking at it?"

"We need to make sure they don't," Charles agreed.

"Easier said than done," Mystique grouched.

"Not necessarily, we just need to make sure we stay with them until they find the entrance to Akator. They are all carrying plenty of metal," Erik smiled.

"The main thing is we make sure everyone is safe until then," Charles made sure everyone agreed with that sentiment.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

"So how do you know him?" Mutt asked as he saw Marion gently tend to the grey haired man.

"We first met when my father was lecturing, Jones was one of his students," Marion started as she gently prodded the man to raise his head so she could shove a pillow underneath it. "We ended up bumping into each other through the years, he had a penchant for getting into trouble. He found me in Nepal and helped me get back to the States, via Cairo and a Nazi submarine."

"What?" Mutt said in surprise.

"I'll tell you the whole story another day," Marion promised. "But now we need to help these two. Can you keep an eye on Oxley?"

Mutt obediently shuffled over to the other man, grumbling about having his hands tied up still. However halfway there he dropped onto his back and seemed to have a mini fit as he wriggled and bucked. Marion turned and was about to shout for help, but saw what he was doing and smiled. A couple of minutes later he had his hands at his front and was more easily moving around.

Gently Marion sat herself on the edge of Indiana's mat, her hip against his, and stroked a hand through his short grey hair. The man continued to stare straight ahead at the ceiling above him, but Marion persisted.

"Come on Jones," she murmured gently. "You've been in worse situations than this, you just need to figure it out."

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

 _The wind shrieked past his ears, deadening the sounds around him until they were little more than whispers reaching him. But that didn't stop him from hearing everything around him, laughter, shouting, swearing, worried whispers... he heard it all but couldn't make sense of them. Mist swirled around him, somehow not dispersed by the wind, clouded his view and made it impossible to see around him._

 _He remembered a skull, and a tent. But then the world had disappeared and he was lost._

 _' **Don't worry, you are safe with us,'** someone whispered._

 _He tried to turn around to see the speaker, but it was impossible to find anything in the mist and he only succeeded in getting himself even more lost._

 ** _'Who are you?'_** _he called into the mist._

 ** _'We are waiting for you,'_** _the voice seemed to be multi-layered, as if many spoke at once. However they were infuriatingly vague._

 ** _'But_ who are you _?!'_** _he shouted back._

 ** _'We are the creators of Akator, we are your salvation,'_** _was the only reply he got._

 ** _'How do I find you?'_**

 ** _'Look for the skull in tears. Listen for the sound of weeping,'_** _the voices were becoming fainter._

 ** _'Will you at least take away the mist? Help me figure out how to let the others know,'_** _he called desperately._

 _But too late, he was left alone. He shouted in frustration and searched desperately for something to punch, and became more enraged when he found nothing. As he was about to give up he thought he saw something in the distance, obscured by the mist. Hurriedly he staggered towards it, tripping on unseen obstacles until he was exhausted and almost sobbing with desperation._

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

Marion had been sitting by Indiana's side for over two hours whilst the rest of the tent went about various things. Oxley had awoken and Mutt had taken his job to heart and was trying to coax him into eating, something that even Marion had only been successful at on a number of occasions. The other bound occupants had noticed Mutt's trick and had managed to similarly free themselves partially. Marion hadn't been surprised that the other man about Mutt's age had been the best at it, whilst the more scholarly of them took the longest.

She had been aware that the others had gone into a huddle and spent a long while discussing something, but she wasn't sure what. And honestly Marion didn't care, the most important thing was to try and get Indiana to wake up. She wasn't religious or superstitious, but there was no denying that the man next to her had unbelievable luck. If anyone could make a plan to get them out of here, and for it to actually work, it would be him. No matter what the others planned, she still would much rather it had Indiana's seal of approval.

Her attention was caught, however, when Mutt started to get a little frustrated with Oxley.

"Come on Ox, just eat something," he said in a loud voice.

"Mutt, honey," she said soothingly. "It's okay, if he won't eat then you can't force him."

"But he's skin and bones Mom," Mutt protested, still holding the plate with Ox's food on it. "He needs to eat."

"The best thing to focus on is getting him to drink," she took the plate and put it to one side. "In this climate dehydration will kill him quicker than hunger."

"But he needs to eat!" Mutt shouted.

"Mutt Williams," she matched his anger, but at a few decibels lower. "Don't you raise your voice at me."

"Sorry Mom," Mutt backed down and moved to pick up a canteen of water.

Marion sighed and settled back in her seat. Her sigh turned to a gasp as she looked down and noticed a pair of hazel eyes staring back at her. She very gently reached down and cupped his face in a hand.

"Indy?" she breathed.

She wasn't rewarded with a reply, however she couldn't care less as he sluggishly raised a hand and placed it against hers. There wasn't much of a reaction from him, he was looking confused and lost, but it was enough.

"Hey you," she whispered as she rubbed his cheekbone as she quietly waved a hand in the direction of the other group.

Thankfully they didn't all crowd over at once but rather the academic one, Charles she had been told, came over. He saw the change in the man and immediately tried to get his own reaction from the man.

"I think he's shut down again," Charles said as after a few minutes of calling to or prodding Indiana didn't get any response.

"No, I don't think so," Erik had slowly drifted over and was watching the three closely. "Marion, could you move over to sit by Mutt?"

It was only a short distance to the other side of the tent, so the woman did so and the two were surprised to see that Indiana moved his head to keep her in his sights.

"Whatever is wrong, he's somehow made the connection with you and is focusing on you. I bet if you order him to do things he will follow them, so he at least should be more manageable than Oxley," Erik nodded over to the other man who Mutt had finally got eating.

"Sit up Indy," Marion tested, offering him a hand.

The six foot man smoothly sat up, instinctively crossing his legs and putting his hands on his knees. Marion grinned triumphantly and passed him his plate of food, with a cup of water. She sat down in front of him again, less than a metre away, with her own plate of food and started eating. They all smiled in triumph as the man stared at her for a short while before looking down at his own food and mechanically tucked in, managing to eat the slightly messy food without any kind of difficulty, unlike the rest of them.

Charles surreptitiously put his fingertips to his temple and sought out Indiana's mind. The fog was still there, but it seemed that some patches had cleared, and that was where he found the man's consciousness: sitting in a clear patch with Marion. Memories of Marion featured heavily in a lot of the other gaps, which corroborated with Erik's idea that she would be able to get him to do the most, as whatever consciousness was working could remember her. Whether the clearing would continue Charles had no way of knowing, but it was a start.

Second he looked into Oxley's mind, and quickly retreated. As with the other people in the sanitarium in Nazca, his thoughts were scattered and unconnected. His memories were slashed and ruined as well, events from decades apart clashed and merged making it a nightmare for the man to make sense of anything. There was little they could do to help him.

"Maybe we can still get help from him after all," Charles said hopefully.

"What help do you need?" Marion asked, now that she was less worried with her old friend she was prepared to enter the other conversations.

"We need to help the Russians find Akator," Erik began.

Charles was ready to jump in, but it turned out he didn't need to worry about Marion taking their plan the wrong way. She looked at them for a second then nodded, "if they can get us there, we can then slip away and try and find a way to heal these two."

"Got it in one," Erik nodded. "And we have a plan once we get there."

"Is this something to do with the reason Mutt keeps staring at you?" Marion had noticed her son's apparent fascination with two of them in particular.

"I suppose we may as well clue you in," Charles looked at Erik as a hint for him to get ready to do a lot of explaining and convincing.


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: Sorry for the delay in updating folks, I had to blitz the last of my college work. But it is done and I am free! So expect hopefully the rest of this story to be posted in short order, I'm hoping to finish my 3 outstanding stories now I have spare time!**

 **Posted date: 08/07/2017**

* * *

Chapter 18

Marion was in no way surprised that Jones had managed to get himself into such a weird predicament. Having been with him when the spirits within the Ark of the Covenant had decimated the Nazi stooges, the paranormal was nothing new to her. Learning humans could do such things just with the power of their own will was the next step into the unreal, but she took it in her stride. And she knew if anyone was going to have an accident and be able to do such things too, it would be Indiana.

She had been pretty much glued to his side since he had been shoved back into her life, both because it seemed he dealt better with her around but also because she felt a weird sense of guilt. True, it had not been her fault he had been altered, but if she hadn't asked Mutt to find him then he would still be safe and functioning in America. She had left the tent with Mystique for half an hour a few hours after breakfast to wash and stretch their legs with a walk around the outside perimeter of the camp. The relative peace and quiet was something that both of them relished whilst they could, but then they were taken back.

"Thank God you're back," Mutt hurried to pull Marion through the tent back to Indiana's bed.

"Why?" Marion asked, then she saw.

Indiana, who had been able to sit upright and respond to orders before, was curled in the fetal position with his head grasped tightly in his hands.

"How long has he been like this?" Marion asked worriedly as she sat by him and started to rub circles on his back.

"For at least ten minutes," Havok supplied.

And it took another hour to coax the man from his isolation and back to the relatively aware state he had been in when she left. After that she made sure to stick as close as possible to him. Even when they were dragged out into the middle of the camp at lunch time Marion made sure to force herself into the line next to Indy when they were made to kneel.

"So, we have reached a crossroads," the woman, Charles had called her Irina Spalko, declared.

Mutt looked like he was going to talk back to her, so Marion quickly jabbed him in the ribs. An echoing hiss of pain slightly further down the row told her that someone else had been elbowed in the ribs too, her guess was the teen Havok.

"Only two of you are useful, however they are also impossible to understand," Spalko continued as if there hadn't been anything odd happening. "You have until sunset to figure out how to find Akator."

"Or what?" Charles asked in clarification.

"Or we leave your bodies here and start destroying the jungle until we find it," Irina said carelessly.

"Not much of an incentive," Erik said under his breath, however he was loud enough they could all here him.

"Indeed, so you better get to work," Spalko nodded.

Thankfully they were left outside in the open, rather than being forced back into the admittedly large but still stifling tent. Spalko and her seconds in command left, leaving them with twenty guards standing around them with guns drawn. Charles, Erik and Marion traded worried glances and immediately nudged the rest to sit in a circle with their two charges loosely included.

"So, ideas?" Erik looked at the others.

"Indy isn't completely nuts, just lost right?" Mutt said slowly.

"That's the best description," Charles nodded.

"And he seems to recognize and react to Mom?"

"What are you getting at?" Mystique asked.

"What if Mom repeats the quote? Or sit Oxley right next to Mom? He might pay attention to Oxley and pick up something we're missing," Mutt suggested.

"It can't hurt," Marion agreed, "but perhaps we try it without Oxley to start, he's not likely to sit still willingly."

They all turned in time to see Oxley try and stand up, only to be grabbed by the shoulder by Erik and kept on his knees.

Marion turned and shuffled until she was sitting in front of the archaeologist. She tapped him on the knee and waited the five or so minutes it took for him to come back to himself and turned to face her. "Hey Jones."

He didn't reply, as usual, however the flicker of recognition and an almost twitch of the lips was enough for her. She took a few seconds to recall exactly what Oxley had been quoting since she had been reunited with him before talking. "To lay their just hands on that Golden Key that ope's the Palace of Eternity. Through eyes that last I saw in tears, here in death's dream kingdom."

She repeated it a couple of times and waited patiently, hoping for it to sink in. Then she tapped him on the temple. "Figure it out Jones, I know you can't resist a puzzle. Tell me what it means."

And then they sat, and waited.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

Mac didn't know how things had gone so badly. Gambling had been the bane of his life since before the war, which made things difficult. Sometimes he managed to hit a streak and things would start to look up, but then he would get too cocky and end up having to flee some country or other to save his own hide. He had had a few connections in Russia from spying and also from a few trades he had done whilst Indy's back was turned whilst they were undercover. So when he was approached by a few unsavoury men with a proposition, at a time when a large gang was busy hunting him in Italy, it seemed like a good idea.

He knew that in order to get the payout he was owed it was inevitable that Indy was going to get roughed up. Being shoved in the boot of a car alongside his old friend hadn't been a part of the deal he had expected, but it had served its purpose. Mac had initially been quite pleased that they had got what they needed and that Jonesy had escaped, only for them to catch up with him in Nazca.

The latest development hadn't been something that had sat well with him. But in the middle of the jungle, surrounded by heavily armed Russians, he didn't exactly have much of a choice. When his one time friend was lying on the floor, unresponsive and with blood pouring out of his face, Mac felt a twinge of regret.

And then the next day he felt even worse. He hung back whilst the prisoners were forced into a sitting line in front of the female colonel. However where he stood was close enough to see the full effect of the skull's power on Indiana.

Even when he had been shot and suffering blood loss Colonel Indiana Jones was snarky and a bloody stubborn fool. But now? He was kneeling in an awkward position seemingly without a care of the pain. The man was pale and staring blankly into the distance, looking lost. Indiana didn't seem to care, but Mac hated seeing his friend in such a bad state.

Although Spalko's time with them was brief Mac continued to linger in a nearby tent and watched them. Without wasting any time the group created a huddle and seemed to try to figure out what to do, and came up with a plan pretty quickly.

Mac knew that Jonesy had always carried a torch for Marion, occasionally the man had whispered her name during nightmarish nights when they were cold and starving. But to see his reaction to her now proved how deeply his feeling ran. Instead of staring into nothing Indiana turned to look at her and obviously paid attention to her.

The woman repeated the same lines the crazy fool had been spurting for _weeks_ clearly for Jonesy, and then waited. Mac was dying to place a bet with someone that Indy, even with his addled mind, would figure it out. However after everything he was starting to realize that gambling wasn't the answer to everything so he held his silence and waited, instead keeping himself occupied with a cigar. He had smoked almost the entire thing before anything happened, and from his angle he didn't catch what Indiana said. However he did see fully how Marion grinned in delight and planted a kiss on his forehead gleefully.

"Atta boy Jonesy," Mac said as he stubbed out his cigar and went in search of Spalko.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

"So what have you found out?" Irina asked as soon as she returned to the centre of the camp.

" _Through eyes at last I saw in tears,_ " Marion said.

"If you are just going to repeat the old fool again I fail to see how your are of use -" Spalko spat in annoyance as she raised a hand ready to give an order.

"It's clues," Charles spoke over her.

"Clues?"

"We don't know much, but we're guessing wherever the entrance to Akator is, it's located near a large amount of water. Probably a river or waterfall?" Marion explained. "And if Oxley walked to the place then it has to be close to Nazca, probably within four days walk."

"Hmm," Spalko considered. "That could be useful."

She spared a glance at Indiana, who was staring blankly into the dead embers of last nights fire. And then to Oxley, who was sitting with the others but was still mumbling away. Seeming to make a decision she turned to her men and started firing off orders and left the group sitting in a line.

"Anyone know what she's saying?" Havok muttered, slightly concerned for their safety.

"Jones will know," Marion turned and nudged the fedora wearing man. "Indy, what is she saying?"

He tuned to look at Marion before cocking his head to the side and sat there listening for a few minutes. It seemed a struggle, but eventually he returned his languid gaze to Marion. "Leaving, tomorrow."

"What about us?" Mutt asked, and Marion repeated that.

For a while it looked as if Indiana was listening again, but the slowly realized that in fact he had lost himself again. Marion sighed and when the guards started to nudge them to their feet again she helped her old friend to his feet and guided him to the tent. Once inside she got him lying down, and almost immediately he seemed to fall asleep. So they left him alone and started an impromptu council of war on how exactly they were going to overpower and escape from the Russians.

With the guards outside the tent none of them bothered keeping an eye on Oxley, as they all wanted to be clued in to the plan. So they didn't notice how the oldest of their group slowly approached the second oldest, and sat next to him.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

 _Fighting to stay in the clearings was exhausting, Indiana learned quite quickly. Although he felt that he should be stationary in his own mind, which is where he guessed he was, it was as if he had to fight the fog to stop it sucking him back into its depths. Staying with Marion was worth the fight, and the relative clarity that came with it was a compromise between lost in fog and his old self. But he couldn't fight constantly, even with his recent training in mental control. When his strength gave out he would be pulled slowly back into the fog, to be lost and alone again. In those periods he tried to sleep to ignore the feeling of hopelessness and isolation._

 _He was uncomfortably aware of being forced awake and once again found himself in the fog. Quickly he debated between sleeping again or fighting back to the present. Before he made a decision however, something made it for him._

 _The familiar clearing where Marion and reality was he could feel off to his right, however slightly to his left and ahead there was something new. Ignoring the instinct to avoid anything new, in case it brought more pain, he staggered upright and forged a path through the resistant fog towards the new thing in his mind. Traipsing the path was harder than any attempt he had had to move through the fog so far, and he wasn't sure whether it was the weird fog resisting him or if he was subconsciously fighting himself._

 _Eventually he fought into the open spot and halted in surprise by the person who awaited him._

 _"Hello Jones," the man smiled politely._

 _"Ox?" he managed to gasp out._

 _"Long time no see, I see time has been good to you," he continued in a rather stiff manner._

 _"But I thought-. You're cell-."_

 _"You thought that I was insane?" Oxley finished. "In a manner of speaking, yes I am insane. But I am like you, in some recesses of my mind I remain intact."_

 _"How are you doing this? You're not-," Indy had to stop himself from blurting out his own secrets._

 _"I am not as_ gifted _as you are, however we now share a connection with the Skull and Its kind. Through that we can communicate, and they can watch," Oxley explained._

 _"You speak as if it was living," Indiana laughed, but it was hollow._

 _"You know It is," Oxley said somberly._

 _"So, why make contact now?"_

 _"It's the first time we have been alone and close enough together, but also because you need to know where we are going and the hazards we'll face," Oxley announced._

 _"But I can't warn the others about them," Indiana pointed out._

 _"That doesn't matter, if you know about them I am sure you'll find a way to counter them."_

 _"You're being surprisingly helpful, considering I get the feeling you hate my guts," Jones had to point out whilst he had the chance._

 _"I do, but this is beyond us and our feud right now," Oxley waved it off. "We can discuss our past actions and misdeeds later."_

 _Indiana nodded regretfully and paid attention as the older and wiser, although it pained him to admit the latter, man started to relate his own journey to him. By the time his tale was done Indy had a vague idea of the area they were going in to. However by that point in the tale Oxley had lost his mind and his bearings a few times, so the exact directions and landmarks were still lost to even them._

 _"But how exactly will we know if the Russians are going the right way? None of us have a map, and we could come to the river well downstream and trek past it," he pointed out._

 _"Listen," Oxley said simply._

 _"Not helpful, that's the second time I've been told to do that," he muttered in annoyance._

 _"It's actually very helpful, if you pay attention. I heard you and knew of our connection even before you regained consciousness," Oxley snapped back._

 _Not expecting such a reaction Indiana fell silent. It was at times like these when he was reminded that the mild mannered man had been a ranked member of the army too, commanding his own men and leading charges._

 _"I know you are a man of action, but you are also a man of learning too. Use that brain once in a while," Oxley gave him a wry smile._

 _Indy relaxed slightly, feeling as if he had been forgiven slightly, even if not completely. "It's good to see you Ox."_

 _"We've been gone long enough, the others are starting to worry," Oxley said with his head cocked to one side as if able to hear something Indy couldn't. "I wish you luck."_

 _And then Oxley was gone, and Indy was engulfed in fog._


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: Like I said, I'm determined to finish these! Posted 09/07/2017.**

* * *

The eight of them were rammed into the back of a large truck as the sun rose the next day. There had been little warning of them being moved, apart from the camp suddenly exploding into life. Their already quite cramped tent had been filled to bursting as numerous soldiers marched in and started physically lifting them to their feet and shoving them to the door. Mutt had only had enough time to wriggle his way through the crush of soldiers and prisoners to get to his mother before they had been marched off to the truck and they were off.

He looked across the truck at the two oldest of their group and frowned slightly. After their apparent conversation last night neither of them had reacted to the other again. It had been weird, Mutt had been the one to first spot how they had suddenly connected and as he had quietly called Oxley's name the others had noticed too. They had all watched as Indiana and Oxley stared directly at each other without breaking eye contact. Occasionally a flicker of emotion passed over one or the other's face. Anger, regret, confusion, and determination, which looked alien on the faces of the two previously emotionless men. Eventually Oxley cooked his head to the side, as if listening to something, then sighed deeply before looking away from Indiana. The pair seemed to return to normal, or what was normal for them over the last few days, after that. Oxley huddled up once more and started muttering, and Jones stared off into space.

Despite the two being sat next to each other again now, neither paid attention to the other. Oxley was shuffling restlessly, and Indiana seemed to be staring at nothing again. With the eight of them seated along each side of the truck, and four guards at each end of the truck, there wasn't much room to move around to talk to the others. He was wedged up the drivers end of the truck with his mum opposite and Oxley and Indy next to them, effectively cutting them off from any of the other conversations going on. However he could easily see the way that Erik seemed to be concentrating really hard on nothing, whilst Charles had his head bent forward and cradled in his hands as if sleeping. Guessing that they were still plotting away, Mutt itched to be involved too despite him not having any plans to offer. So instead he shuffled around a little to get comfy and attempted to sleep the journey away.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

Finally in the evening Mutt perked up as the truck slowed to a halt. They had only stopped once to refuel, and whilst they had been stationary the group had been allowed out into the jungle. Food still didn't appear though, so it was a rather uncomfortable group that were shoved into a temporary camp in the dark. Instead of having a tent this time, there was merely a tarpaulin stretched over a rope and pulled tight to shelter them from any rain that might fall. It was low enough that the tallest of their group couldn't stand upright, not that one of them really noticed that problem.

The problem was soon forgotten as a number of men approached them and shoved familiar bowls into their hands and dumped a load of canteens off before leaving them alone again. Mutt tried to eat at a sensible pace, but considering he hadn't eaten since breakfast over twelve hours ago he failed at that goal. He at least noted he took a bit longer than Havok who seemed to have inhaled his food.

And then in the dark, despite having done nothing all day, they all settled down to sleep.

Only to be woken up early the next day to more of the same treatment. For three days they found themselves in the same routine of early mornings, the day spent in the back of a truck, and an uncomfortable night on the forest floor. All the while they didn't see any new guards beyond the eight that accompanied them in the truck who seemed to have been assigned to caring for them.

Tempers started to fray in the group, Mutt and Havok were going stir crazy with the monotony and although they bore it better the other four were not far behind them.

On the fourth night things came to a head.

Mutt had been so desperate in his attempts to remain calm that he had even resorted to trying some calming techniques his counselors had failed to get him to use at school. But when one of the Russian guards shoved his bowl of food at him and spilled hot soup over his hand, he flipped.

"Look, man, stop being such a dick!" Mutt shouted as he shoved the food back, spilling it back over the soldier's hands.

He didn't understand the rough words that the man snarled back, but the fist to the face was a pretty clear message.

Mutt scrambled to his feet and ignored the female voice shouting at him over all the other voices and instead charged into the soldier, bowling them both over.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

 _Henry was heartily sick of fog, and had vowed that if he ever was able to return to normal he was going to move back to Utah. He hadn't been a fan of the arid region as a kid, but now it would be ideal as there would never be the risk of mist or fog plaguing him ever again._

 _He had attempted to fight back to consciousness a few times over the last days but every time they were either sitting in the back of a truck or huddled in a rudimentary shelter at night. So Jones had mostly remained absent from the real world, preferring to keep his strength even if it did mean sitting alone in the fog._

 _That evening was no different, he was trying to keep himself occupied by trying to count as high as he could in Greek when the sound of loud voices carried through the fog. They were muffled and indistinct, but the anger was clear._

 _Indiana surged to his feet and searched around for a few seconds before charging into the fog. The only good thing about being in the fog more over the last few days was that he had had time to get better at listening and finding things quicker._

 _As quick as he was though he was forced to watch some of the events going on from a distance, as if watching a movie. He saw Mutt get pulled off a soldier by two other uniformed men, before the first one stood upright and barked orders to the two. Mutt was quickly restrained, and the one started to pummel the youth in the stomach and face._

 _Having been in such a situation many times before Indiana knew the pain the greaser was experiencing, and Indiana was determined to help._

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

Marion and Charles were shouting at the guards, begging them to stop. Erik would have been leaping into the fight if they weren't so outnumbered, and as it was he was busy trying to restrain Havok. Mystique was helping him, bodily putting herself in the way so that he had no way of unleashing his energy without devastating their group too.

All five of them suddenly stopped in shock as a brown blur appeared from behind them and dove into the fray. Within seconds the fight was over.

Indiana stood in the empty space in front of them all, the three guards lay in awkward positions at his feet. The bizarre angles of their heads loudly declared what Jones had done to them. The man in question stood silently staring down at them, barely panting from his sudden burst of activity.

"Damn," Havok breathed in shock from where he was still being held tightly by Mystique and Erik.

His words seemed to break the spell on the world, and everything seemed to happen at once.

Charles and Marion dashed forward to help as Mutt had fallen to his knees and was clutching his nose and stomach. With his back to them no one could see what Jones was feeling, but that was something they were going to find out after helping Mutt. But they only had time to reach Mutt and help him before more guards appeared on the scene.

Five more men appeared, and Marion recognised them as the others of their guard. From where the three of them were crouched by Indiana's side she was in a perfect place to see the sudden reaction he had to the sound of shouted angry words and the cocking of guns. Her shouted words were lost as the man exploded into action again and he attacked the other Russian soldiers.

Soon their were eight bodies on the floor. Apparently his reputation for being insane meant the guards had no idea what to make of the suddenly active archaeologist until it was too late for them. None of them had managed to fire off a shot before they met the same fates as their fellows.

"Indiana stop!" Marion shouted at him as she desperately dashed over to him and grabbed his shoulders.

She was in time to see the stormy glare on his face, and a frown that would have cowed even the most rebellious student. But as soon as she came into view he apparently calmed and the fight left him. He almost seemed to smile at seeing her.

"You did good Jones, but stop that now before things get worse," she patted him gently on the shoulder.

"What the hell just happened?" Mutt said loudly, but with his voice muffled by the handkerchief he had wedged against his nose it came out at a normal volume.

"Jones just happened," Marion said.

"Well that's obvious, but how did he manage to take out eight men without getting hit?" Mutt continued.

"You forget he fought in both world wars, he wouldn't have made it if he hadn't picked up a few tricks," the woman replied as she tried to move Jones away from the bodies.

"He is definitely useful to have in a tight spot," Havok chuckled.

"We aren't out of the woods yet," Charles said worriedly as the sounds of many angry voices broke into their small island of calm.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

"What have you done Jonesy," Mac muttered under his breath as they arrived at the one tent set up away from the others.

Guards encircled the eight Americans, and the bodies of eight of their brothers. Although one of the youths had blood on his face and apparently couldn't sit up straight, Mac had no doubts as to who was responsible for the carnage.

It didn't help that his body language screamed his guilt. Although he had a mild look on his face, and not the usual mix of anger and exhilaration he usually wore in a fight, the fact his hands were still balled into fists and he was poised on the balls of his feet revealed all. Automatically, at the arrival of around twenty five guns, the others had all dropped to their knees, apart from Oxley who was apparently fascinated by a nearby plant, and Jones who seemed oblivious to it all again.

"How did this happen?" Spalko demanded, not even bothering with the usual first question.

"One of the guards attacked Mutt and he retaliated but was outnumbered," Charles spoke quickly. "Then that somehow triggered Indiana and he snapped."

"It seems to be guns and violence that triggered it," Marion added.

Only Mutt to her right noticed the small triumphant smirk that flickered over her face as the guns around them were quickly lowered.

There was silence for a few minutes as Spalko seemed to consider her options.

"This is not working," she said in a conversational tone.

Mac immediately stiffened, as did a number of the Russian soldiers that understood English. Three of their captives did too, and the others seemed to notice the change without fully knowing why.

"But at least you have been of some use so far," Spalko finished off. She then turned to Dovchenko and gave an order.

Mac knew the man had a mean streak, but he was the only person he had met who actually smiled as he gave an execution order.

The soldiers around them raised their guns and took aim whilst Dovchenko raised his hand. The six on their knees froze as their position became immediately clear. Mac started forward, desperate to try to bargain for his friend's life.

However he only just reached Spalko as Dovchenko barked out the order to fire.

And he was just as stunned as the others when nothing happened.

Some of the soldiers around him lowered their guns and repeatedly clicked the triggers whilst the muzzles of their guns were pointed at the ground. But no matter how hard they mashed the triggers nothing happened.

Mac stared in amazement between the suddenly cocky prisoners and the astounded guards.

"In your own time," one of the older guys, Mac hadn't bothered learning their names, said in a slightly tight voice.

And then all the prisoners scrambled to their feet and started attacking the soldiers. Marion diverted to say something to Indiana, and he jumped into the fray too.

Mac stayed well out of the range of fists and feet, retreating so that there was a line of bushes between him and the melee. Although it seemed like impossible odds, the seven were doing reasonably well. The younger woman was barely holding out against one soldier, but the other two younger guys were tackling two each without being dropped. The two older men were doing well, despite the one with the longer hair barely being able to throw a punch. Marion was outstripping even a few of the soldiers as she lived up to her reputation. But none of them could match Jonesy who was laying men out left and right. It seemed that without a gun some of the soldiers were a little lost.

"Charles, drop them!" someone shouted.

"It's a little difficult to concentrate!" the not very good fighter shouted back.

However he seemed to try to concentrate, even going so far as trying to duck away from his fight in order to put a hand to his head. Mac had no idea what the idea was, but just as he was moving to get a better look everything suddenly went black.


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: And here you go again! I reckon I should have this story done mostly by the end of the week for you guys! Hope you continue to enjoy :)  
Posted 10/07/2017... UK format. Why exactly do you Americans put the month first, seriously?**

* * *

Mystique let out a huge sigh of relief as the soldiers around them dropped suddenly, like marionette puppets with their strings cut. She had managed to get lucky and had knocked one soldier out, but she had only carried on fighting because the other option was being killed. Their fight against Shaw had proved how unskilled she was at fighting, and this just further cemented that flaw in her training.

"As soon as we get home I'm learning some kind of martial art," she huffed as she gingerly picked her way over to Charles.

There were a few rumblings of agreement from Havok and Mutt, but they were all a little distracted for proper conversation.

"How are you?" Mystique asked.

"Don't ask me to do that again any time soon," Charles said as he massaged his temples. "They're only knocked out, not dead. I thought it was safer in case I accidentally knocked one of us out."

"But what do we do with them now?" Havok asked as they looked around.

"We can't leave them, they know what to look for and can easily come after us," Erik said solemnly.

"We are not murdering a tonne of men in cold blood," Marion stormed over and immediately shot the idea down.

"There isn't another option," Erik countered.

"Yes there is," Marion insisted.

"We're all ears," Charles held up a hand to stop Erik from continuing to argue.

"We sabotage their equipment and take any kind of map they have with them. If we can spoil all their supplies too then they will have no choice but to head back to their base camp. I don't know if you saw but pretty much every vehicle they had they've brought with them here. Although they may be able to get food and maps again, they'll be on foot just like us," Marion outlined. "At the very least if they want to come after us still they'd be insane to do so as soon as they wake up, and if they return later we'll be long gone."

"It is better than a massacre," Mystique piped up. She was still a bit revolted by the eight that Indiana had originally killed, and a quick glance over to the man showed he had probably added to that total.

"Fine, but we better get to work quickly," Erik nodded.

To prove his point he immediately grabbed the nearest gun, and stripped a belt from another soldier to tuck a pilfered knife through.

Without much of an idea of what to do to sabotage a vehicle Mystique joined Charles in gathering supplies and packing bags with as much as they could. Oxley seemed content to hold anything she gave him which kept him busy, whilst Indiana was following Marion around easily. Mystique at first had been surprised that the other woman had known much about vehicles, and soon she proved that she knew more than Havok. So the mother and son ended up leading the sabotaging team.

It was around two hours later when the four of them were done, important cables had been severed, plugs removed and thrown into the bushes, and fuel drained into the soil below. Mutt had insisted that as a final level of security each tyre had been repeatedly slashed beyond repair, so he and Havok had gone off with knives to do the job. At the same time Marion and Erik had double checked for any map left, and had grabbed the sack with the skull in.

"So who carries what?" Mutt asked as the two youths reappeared.

"We have a backpack each, there should be enough food for a week and water for the next few days," Charles started passing out the bags. "Oxley has the pack with the tarpaulin in for the shelter, I'm not sure if he can carry more."

"It may seem like a really obvious question, but which way do we go now?" Mystique asked as she shouldered her heavy pack.

"For now, just away from here," Marion spoke and gestured for people to head off at an angle from the track carved out by the Russians. "The river is this way so we'll find it then follow it until we are a safe distance from the camp. Then we can figure out where exactly we are and where we want to go."

"Your Mom is surprisingly good at this," Mystique said as she fell in to step next to Mutt.

"At what?" Mutt asked, then huffed as a branch slapped in to his face as it swung back from Erik's hand.

"Dealing with being kidnapped, and escaping," she pointed out.

"Yeah, she said there's a few stories of her and Indiana that she needs to tell me. Apparently she had a much wilder life than I was ever told about," Mutt agreed.

"Well I'm glad she has a plan," Mystique smiled.

Soon there was little time for conversation as they all pushed ahead to get as much distance from the camp as possible. With their differing levels of fitness it soon became obvious that some were starting to struggle. Without a defined path clambering over the roots and occasional dropped branches was hard work, especially as they tried to leave as little a trail as possible. They only managed an hour before Oxley started to seriously lag, only kept with the group by the fact Charles had taken the back of the group and called when they were threatened with being separated.

"We should stop, I doubt the Russians would follow us an hour away from camp," Havok suggested.

"It would be possible, but without half of their gear they might not want to," Marion said with uncertainty.

"Ox can't keep going Mom, and if anyone does follow us I'm sure Erik can handle them," Mutt said reassuringly.

"I have bullets now," Erik held up a full clip from one of the guns as if to prove his point.

"Alright, we shouldn't be too far from the river now anyway. We shouldn't light a fire but we can at least get the tarpaulin up for rain," Marion agreed eventually.

The combined lack of experience camping meant erecting their shelter took slightly longer than it needed to, but soon the eight of them were all sitting or lying under the cover of their 'tent'. It didn't take long for Mystique, Havok, and Mutt to fall asleep, the latter snuffled slightly as he breathed through a still slightly blood clotted nose.

"I'll stay up and keep watch first," Erik offered.

"You sure?" Charles checked.

"Yes, I'll wake someone else up in four hours to swap over," Erik insisted and waved the other two back to their own mats. "Hopefully we'll get through the night without a hitch."

"You are one of the best to stay awake I suppose," Marion agreed. "How far can you sense metal?"

"With so many cars back at the camp I know exactly where it is. Smaller bits are harder to track, but if enough people move together I'll be able to tell if a group starts heading this way," Erik reassured her.

So without further argument Erik was left awake as the other two settled down. However one other person remained awake alongside him.

"Come on Indy, it's time you slept as well," Erik tried to coerce the man.

However he hadn't had much to do with the man to start with, so his control over the archaeologist was virtually non-existent. So they both ended up sitting there in the dark as the others slept. Although Erik did occasionally try to get his attention it never worked, and Indiana continued to stare off into the distance. It took almost the entirety of his shift for Erik to notice that the staring this time around was a little different to the norm.

"Hey, Indy," Erik said quietly as he edged closer to the man.

When he was directly in front of the man he gingerly tapped him on the shoulder, and after a while was rewarded with the man turning his gaze to him.

"What are you doing?" Erik asked.

"Listening," Indy replied in little more than a whisper.

"To what?" Erik tried to listen himself for anything out of the ordinary, but he couldn't hear anything.

"Crying."

"Crying? Who? Where?" Erik said cautiously.

"That way, They are mourning," Indy pointed.

Not knowing exactly what to do with that information Erik did mark with a stick the direction Indiana pointed in so that he could tell the others in the morning.

When he woke up Charles he quickly relayed what Indy had said, and the importance of the random stick stuck into the ground. After that he gratefully curled up into the bed Charles had abandoned and fell asleep easily.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

The heavens opened the next morning. On one hand it meant they had pretty much unlimited water, but on the other hand it made travelling even worse than before. The ground easily turned to mud under pressure, the foliage around them quickly drenched their clothing, and the already close air became unbearable.

But for once it felt like they had a target and an actual end to their journey. Indiana led, with Marion behind him occasionally tugging his arm to slow him down. It was then a muddle of all the rest, but with Erik determinedly staying at the back in case they had some unwanted company. The direction that Indiana was leading them in was still away from the base camp and where they had left the Russians, but Erik didn't want to leave it to chance.

It took them until pretty much early evening to reach the river, after numerous stops for them to rest and rehydrate. Where the came out was just below a series of huge waterfalls that towered above them.

"I'm glad we didn't have to come down those," Havok whistled as they stood on a beach and looked up.

"The way down," Oxley pointed to one side of the falls.

"Apparently Ox did the first time," Mutt chuckled.

"Definitely beats going over the Niagara Falls in a barrel," Mystique chipped in.

"So should we stay here tonight?" Charles asked.

"Night falls fast, it would be dangerous to leave here now," Marion decided for them, "and it's going to be easy to set up camp here tonight. There's a load of rocks around the corner that should shield our fire if we want to light one."

Apparently none of them were very good at fire lighting, and after half an hour Marion gave up and managed to prod Indiana into getting the fire going. She definitely wasn't the only one who was relieved when the job was done, as Mystique pulled out a few ration packs designed to be heated and they had a reasonably filling meal.

Marion insisted on taking first watch that night, and was accompanied by Indy. Erik pointed out that the man hadn't slept much the night before, so Marion made a point of trying to get him to sleep. However when she woke Mutt up halfway through the night for his turn he was still awake and staring up at a point next to the last and largest waterfall.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

 _Indiana could hear Marion urging him to sleep, and at times swinging wildly between angrily ordering and desperately begging. However sleep was something that he wouldn't let claim him just yet. It had taken him days to learn and find exactly what Oxley and They had been hinting at for so long._

 _He had barely surfaced over the three days because he had been busy trying to listen, as he had been told to do. At first he thought that They were being purposefully difficult, but when Oxley backed Them up he learnt to pay attention. It wasn't easy, and distractions from around him often drew him from his task. Things like sleep were important but every time he awoke again he had to start his search from scratch, as whatever ground he covered was once again lost in the fog. The fight didn't help matters, but in the blur of events after became a great help as the world quietened and finally he could hear._

 _In amongst the whispers of his memories, and the muffled chatter that filtered through the fog from reality, he could finally pick out something else._

 _It was a mixture of sounds, alien in origin, and yet it came from both inside his mind as well as from the outside world. Once he had learnt to hear it Indy could tell why Oxley hadn't described what to listen for. There wasn't a simple answer, as the sound was a blend of many parts._

 _One part was easy to describe, it was the sound of many voices calling in an unknown tongue. The dialect was unlike any Indy had met, but the unknown words easily spoke of reverence and loss. Then there was music that accompanied it, drums and stringed instruments that blended into a rough harmony. But underneath the human, there was more. Whispers that were too soft to be deciphered but loud enough to be heard, a faint ringing that almost faded into a pitch to high to be detected. And underlining it all was an almost threatening hum of_ something _, perhaps another voice or maybe a machine._

 _Once he found it Indiana found it difficult to tear himself away from the sound. Part of the reason was because there was something to it that just drew him in unwillingly. But also now that he had a clue he wanted to follow it to the end, to possibly get an answer and a cure to the state he had found himself in._

 _So whilst the others slept, he doggedly kept the music in his mind and refused to rest in fear of losing what he had found to follow._


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N: I have two more chapters in reserve to post, so expect updates all this week. I would post them all in one lump but I've found when other authors do that I have a tendency to miss chapters and get confused. Which is another reason for putting the posted date here so you can track where you got to the last time you checked! Posted 11/07/2017.**

* * *

Mutt jerked awake and immediately groaned. The first light of dawn was colouring the sky on the horizon, when he knew that it had been fully dark when he last remembered being coherent. By his estimation he must have slept at least two hours, and had left the camp completely exposed.

However a short distance from him Indiana sat upright, still staring ahead.

"You would have dealt with any problems though," Mutt muttered.

He was unsurprised when he failed to get an answer, and instead he focused on trying to work the kink out of his neck. It was only as he finished stretching the rest of his spine and arms that Mutt realized they weren't the only two awake. On the other side of Indy, hidden by the stronger and taller frame of the man, was Oxley.

"Morning Ox," Mutt called quietly.

"Through eyes at last I saw in tears," Oxley replied with a gesture in the direction Indiana was staring in.

Mutt turned around, and although he had to squint a little to see through the gloom of the morning he could see a faint outline of a rocky outcrop with a waterfall.

"Is that the entrance?" Mutt asked.

He was surprised when both archaeologists nodded in agreement.

"Well that solves a few questions, but does throw up a whole heap of problems," Mutt said.

The three of them watched the sun rise and the world brighten, eager to see what new details would be uncovered by the light. When the sun was fully above the horizon Mutt started to rouse the others so that they could set off quickly.

"The entrance to Akator is through that waterfall there," Mutt told them all once everyone was awake and alert.

"How can you tell," Havok asked as he stifled a huge yawn.

"Two things. One, both Oxley and Indy have been staring up there for the last three hours or so," Mutt started and nodded towards the pair. "And two Ox repeated the 'through eyes at last I saw in tears'. And it looks like a skull so how much more convenient could it get?"

"We'll have to swim over, then climb up," Erik noted as he searched the banks for an easy access to their goal.

"There is probably a safer way, that water is way too fast for Ox to have swum over the first time," Mutt said.

And whilst everyone was searching for answers he quickly walked over to Oxley and Indy. Indy had moved a bit that morning, eating the food given to him and helping pack up equipment as Marion asked. But Oxley had pretty much stayed where he was, staring up at the skull-like rock formation.

"Oxley? Ox?" Mutt tried to get his attention.

After a pause Oxley did turn to look at him, so Mutt seized his chance. "How did you get there Ox? Can you show us?"

Mutt couldn't help but grin as their oldest teammate struggled to his feet and started wandering along the shoreline towards the huge waterfalls. Indy followed without hesitation, and Mutt trecked along in their footprints. They were a good twenty metres away before anyone noticed their absence.

"Mutt, where are you guys off to?" Havok called.

"Ox knows the way in, he's been there before. So I asked him to show me," Mutt called back without breaking his stride.

Soon all of them were easily following the slow progress of Oxley as he led them on a seemingly winding and pointless route. However they slowly inched around the river to the waterfalls, where many expected them to stop. However Oxley forged onwards through the torrent and disappeared. It was only as they moved through the almost unbearably strong downward torrent that the pathway beyond became obvious. It was precarious and slime covered, but there was a rough trail that rambled upwards behind the falls.

Even Erik and Havok were feeling the strain of the climb up and the constant wrenching as their feet occasionally slid out from underneath them. They stopped at least three times before they actually got out from under the waterfall to the small island where the rock skull jutted out between the falls. From their vantage point above it the group marveled at the view given to them of the miles of undisturbed jungle. However they didn't rest for long, for as soon as Oxley was ready to go again he forged on, scrabbling down the cliff easily down to the mouth of the skull. Mutt made sure to go next to make sure that the archaeologist didn't disappear off before the entire group was together again.

"Look at these paintings," Mystique called once she had made it into the passage of the mouth. Mutt was preoccupied checking Oxley was alright so he hadn't explored, but once everyone was together they stopped to see what she had pointed out.

"It's too dark to really appreciate them," Charles said sadly.

"Hang on," Marion rummaged through her backpack until she pulled out a couple of flashlights. "There should be a few in each of these bags I would have thought, it would be stupid to go anywhere without one."

"Good thinking Mom," Mutt grinned as he dug through his pack.

With multiple torches shining on each panel the group could finally see what had been painted. The colours were vibrant and crisp, as if they had been painted just a year ago.

"I thought El Dorado was an ancient city, long lost?" Havok asked as he stared at the mural of a group of humans worshipping their sun god.

"It was ancient, and it was lost. But maybe not to those who already lived there?" Charles suggested.

"And apparently it might not be lost to us for too much longer," Erik said as he quickly dashed to catch up with the two men who hadn't stopped to look at the paintings.

There were numerous pathways and routes leading off of the route they took, and more than once someone in the group stopped to look down one or another. However Oxley never hesitated and continued to lead them down a specific route.

"Something doesn't feel right," Erik muttered to Charles as they moved ever onward.

"How so?" Charles said mildly.

Erik knew that although the telepath seemed to be paying little heed to his warning, Erik knew that Charles was focussing hard on everything around them.

"It feels like we are being watched and followed, I can't shake this feeling that there's eyes on us," he replied as he glanced around.

"That's because we are."

"Well that's not reassuring," Erik hissed.

"I'm keeping tabs of them," Charles pointed out. "So far they are just following us and sticking in the shadows. They aren't happy we are here though so get ready."

"Anything I can work with?" With anyone else it would have been a vague question, but both knew the meaning in the words.

"They don't use metal, despite supposedly having advanced technology they aren't beyond the stone age level. Some are wearing metal in jewellery but nothing more," Charles reported.

"Well I have bullets," Erik unconsciously shoved a hand into his pocket to grab the clip of projectiles.

"We don't want to start a massacre, if it truly looks like they are going to win then it might be worth it," Charles said quickly. "But let's try to get through without violence to start, then let me try my way before we start killing innocents."

"How are they innocent if they attack us?" Erik whispered.

"This is there home, they've probably not seen an outsider before. They are just going to be defensive of their land from invaders," Charles pointed out.

The men that were following them didn't appear fully until they were emerging from the cave system into the daylight again. And the first warning they had that their pursuers were emerging was a strange whistling sound. Charles and Erik turned around with no small feeling of trepidation to see some heavily muscled men smeared in white clay, twirling what looked like rocks wrapped with vines. The weapon looked primitive but Charles didn't want to see how effective they were.

"Run!" he shouted, and thankfully everyone did.

They burst out into the sunlight as one large group, and at first some of them had to halt as the bright light of the sun dazzled their gloom-adjusted eyes. However Oxley and Indy had continued to charge ahead down the wide stone staircase, so the others found themselves having to dash to catch up with them.

At the bottom of the stairs was a large flat expanse of grass that gave them a great view of all the hundreds of tribesmen charging towards them. A few of the weapons twirled by the men behind them whizzed past their heads, making an ominous sound as the stones clacked together.

Soon they were huddled in a group, with the teeming mass of angry locals surrounding them and brandishing a variety of weapons.

"Oxley how did you get through the first time!" Marion shouted.

"Do something Ox!" Mutt hollered a second after.

"Indy!" Mystique called out too.

Charles grabbed Erik as he saw the other mutant reach for his pocket. "Remember what we agreed?"

"Sorry, but you've got to act fast on this one," Erik replied as he raised his hands in surrender, both to Charles and to the tribesmen that were now aiming spears at their throats.

"There's a lot more people here than I thought, this won't be easy," Charles grimaced.

"Well don't knock them out, make them lose sight of us or something," Erik suggested warily.

The two were still bickering over the most feasible illusion when suddenly the warriors around them started to drop to their knees. Like a ripple going outwards all the people surrounding them slowly dropped and lowered their weapons.

And then above the low murmuring of the crowd a loud voice spoke out. Charles and Erik whirled around in time to see what exactly had caused the halt in proceedings.

Indiana stood facing towards the huge pyramid structure ahead of them, and towards the largest portion of the warriors surrounding them. In his right hand was grasped the crystal skull, removed from the sack it had been shoved in to for the first time in a week. The light glinted through it and seemed to burn around the eye sockets. He was also the one shouting something in a completely foreign language. It made no sense to the group, but apparently it made sense to the locals as they shuffled backwards to give them space. A wide pathway started to be formed between the men as well, giving them free access through the centre of the city to the pyramid.

Oxley fearlessly carried on walking as if there was no problem, and that they weren't surrounded by hundreds of angry warriors. Indy followed behind, the skull still held above his head as if to keep on giving the locals the message. Mutt, Marion, Havok, and Mystique followed on in a huddle, leaving the last two to catch up and bring up the rear.

"What just happened?" Erik asked the group.

"Whilst you two were bickering back there Oxley came through and gave the skull to Indy," Mystique started.

"Like before they seemed to have a silent conversation and Indy took control," Mutt added.

"I have no idea what language he was speaking though, and I doubt he did either. I guess it was their language," Marion nodded towards the tribesmen cautiously following them at a safe distance. "But how Indy knew it I have no idea."

"Maybe the skull told him," Havok gave the object an uneasy glance.

"Either way, perhaps it would be best to not look at it," Charles said quickly.

After that they saved their breath for climbing the steep steps. Around them they could see many structures, some chanelling water like streams between what could have been houses. Fields were unmistakably established further down the hidden valley they had found. And although there were a few pyramidal structures, the one they were climbing was the largest by far, and had some kind of obelisk at the top.

The warriors halted at the bottom step and seemed reluctant to climb the pyramid, which gave them a bit of a breather. However none of them felt happy enough to stop and rest for overly long, in case the men below found their bravery and decided to follow them. Surprisingly the six of them found it almost impossible to keep up with Oxley and Indy anymore, and the two were forging ahead to the top.

"Where did he just find his energy from?" Havok panted as he paused to wipe sweat from his forehead.

"I don't know, I would have thought he would be boiling in that poncho in this weather," Mutt grumbled as he fought to keep his leather jacket on in the humid air.

"Maybe they both know they are nearly at the end, or maybe the skull is powering them on?" Mystique chipped in as she breathlessly overtook the two youths.

"Either way, we can't afford to lose them," Erik interrupted and gently nudged Havok upwards.

"When we get home I am sleeping in for a fortnight," Havok grumbled, but he did start off again.

It seemed to take them an age but finally the group made it to the top of the pyramid where even the two archaeologists were pausing to rest. All of them stopped and took a few minutes to gaze at the view in awe as Akator was finally revealed to them.

"No one is going to believe we made it here," Mystique grinned.

"No one will know we got here unless we get out, and to do that we need to return the skull," Havok decided to crash her back to Earth. "So how do we do it?"

And with that they turned to look at the obelisk that rose above them. With one part of their journey over, they were secretly looking forward to seeing what was hidden within Akator.


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: We're getting there! I've been pretty much solidly deliberating the direction of the story for the last three days and I think I am mostly happy with it. Just to finish it now! Posted 12/07/2017.**

* * *

 _He had reached a point where it seemed nothing in his life was his to control anymore. A few months ago he had lost control over his privacy by developing telepathy and having to listen to everyone else's thoughts. He had only just reached a level of normality after that to then lose almost complete control of himself thanks to the Skull. And now even his limited perception of the real world outside his own mind was narrowing down to a few facets. Like running through a tunnel to the light at the other end, Indiana couldn't see anything around him but the few parts of the song They had shown him._

 _Indiana had been vaguely aware of their journey through the jungle and their camp at the edge of the river, but as soon as they reached the waterfalls he started to lose track of what was going on around them. The sound of the song was getting louder. He could hear the chanting of the natives, and the whispers of the unknown language more than ever before._

 _It didn't really surprise him when they were surrounded, his experience with enough isolated cultures had given him the knowledge that they were highly unwelcome._

 _Oxley's sudden appearance in his foggy world did surprise him however._

 _"You need to take the skull," Oxley said without preamble._

 _At the same time as speaking to him Indiana watched with detachment as the physical Oxley handed him the skull from the sack._

 _"What do I do?"_

 _"Show the tribesmen, they fear and revere it. It'll get us through," Oxley explained._

 _Far beyond questioning how Oxley knew things, or whether anything would work anymore, Indiana did just that. He looked up the thing that he too hated and revered, and felt an odd nudging sensation in his mind. Having given up the urge to fight many days ago he just rolled with it and was only slightly intrigued when he heard himself speaking a language he didn't know._

 _Even when he had finished and they had carried on walking he had no clue what he had said, but it seemed to buy them safe passage to the central pyramid._

 _Time seemed to be playing tricks on him now too. At times it seemed to slow to a crawl, and at others he lost entire chunks of time. This was one such occasion where he lost a good half an hour of his life, for one minute he was just starting to climb the hundreds of steps up the pyramid only to find himself already at the top._

 _"Oxley?" Indiana called in his mind._

 _"We're almost as far as I managed the first time," Oxley replied, not bothering to make an actual appearance this time._

 _"How are you so good at this, considering you've been alone for months before we turned up?" Indiana called back._

 _"I may not have had you to talk to, but I wasn't alone," Oxley reminded him._

 _"What are you doing?"_

 _"Knocking," Oxley replied enigmatically._

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

"What is Oxley doing?" Erik moved forwards towards the man in question.

Oxley had been wandering around the middle of the pyramid, gently tapping his hand against each of the protruding rocks. Upon closer inspection Erik could see they were heavily weathered faces carved onto each of the rocks Oxley was touching. However the man wasn't actually looking at what he was doing, seeming to work from memory whilst he searched for something. Erik was going to try and intercept him to find an answer when the man suddenly stopped and rocked one particular stone.

"This one's loose," Erik reported back to the others as he pulled it out, guessing that's what Oxley wanted.

At last the man actually turned his gaze to the rock, before turning deliberately back to Erik. "To lay their hands on that golden key, that ope's the palace of eternity."

"I think this is the way in, we need to remove the rocks," Erik grabbed a handful of the sand that was pouring out the hole.

"A weighted lock? If we remove the sand perhaps a door opens somewhere?" Mutt inferred.

"Let's try it, everyone grab a rock," Marion agreed and hefted a nearby chunk of stone and started hammering on the nearest face.

With seven of them on the job the stone faces started falling out the wall in quick order. The amount of sand that started to pour out also quickly increased until it was a cascade from each side. Marion and Mutt had joined in a team where he would knock the stone loose and Marion pried it out of the wall, whereas the others worked alone.

A loud groaning sound was the first indicator that they were being successful in their attempts, and that was soon followed by the four beams that had laid flat above their heads starting to rise.

"That's the key? It's a great idea!" Marion said with a smile as the four columns started to join into one in the middle.

"Definitely not something that could be stolen, just difficult to solve," Mutt agreed.

However their elation at solving the puzzle was short lived, for as soon as the column joined into one it dropped a metre and seemed to trigger another mechanism. Suddenly the ground under their feet dropped away and they plummeted into the pyramid.

Havok groaned as he rolled of his arm, wincing as the movement jarred his shoulder. "Well that could have been thought out better."

However they didn't have any more time to pick apart the design, as they all heard the further knocking clunks as more systems were activated. They waited with bated breath for the next trap to activate, and they all started in fear as the stairs started to retract.

"Someone really didn't want visitors!" Mystique shouted as they all scrabbled to their feet.

"Well we don't have a choice now, everyone move!" Charles shouted and started pushing the younger three ahead of them.

To him it made sense, the faster ones could go ahead and would have a greater chance of making it. No point in them all being dropped from an unsurvivable height. However they went and ruined the plan by Mystique refusing to leave his side, and Mutt not wanting to leave his family. Marion was sticking with Oxley, so Mutt stuck with her.

"Go go go go go!" Erik shouted to urge them on.

To start with dashing down the stairs was easy, the gaps between them were minimal and they easily moved between each. However as the larger portion of the steps retracted the space to place feet got smaller and further away. Before they were halfway down they had been forced to run single file, and then time ran out.

They had already gotten a glimpse of the rudimentary spikes jutting up waiting for them, so there was more than one member of the group who flinched at the thought of falling into them.

But when it came to it the spikes turned out to be uselessly spaced out, and each of them fell between the wooden spikes and they landed safely in the murky water.

Or, mostly safely.

"There's a bloody skeleton!" Havok shouted as he stumbled to his feet, desperately wiping his shirt as if trying to clean off the contact with the body below.

"Well it isn't going to eat you," Mutt chuckled as he staggered upright too.

"It's not cool man!" Havok picked up said body and flung it over to Mutt.

"Stop playing around," Charles ordered as he surfaced.

"Is everyone alright?" Erik added.

"Oxley?" Marion called as she waded over to the oldest of the group.

But she was beaten there as another figure waded more efficiently through the almost waist high water. Indiana heaved him to his feet and passed over the skull. The man then turned as if ignoring the elder and started taking off his bag. Marion's question died on her lips as she saw her old friend tip it upside down and let a stream of water out. She quickly followed suit, and out the corner of her eye she saw Mutt then Mystique pick up his trick.

"Looks like these two are good," Marion called to the others on the other side of the room.

"Which way now?" Charles asked after he donned his backpack again.

"There's eight passages off of here," Havok searched around.

"Let's leave it up to them," Marion nodded over to the pair of silent men. "Oxley, lead on."

"But he's not been here before, he has no idea where to go," Mystique protested.

"Indy was following something to get us through the jungle, they probably can still hear or sense that same thing," Marion pointed out.

As if to reinforce her point the two started moving at the same time, heading for the same passageway. It looked no different to the others but apparently it was the one they wanted. Without arguing the others followed on, struggling to catch up with the three who had the benefit of being closer to the passage they were using.

"What if they are just going for one at random?" Havok asked.

"Then we'll be back here again soon," Charles replied.

Without any more questions to be asked the group fell silent and instead focussed on taking in the details of he corridors they followed. Before the caves had been mostly rock with the passages carved through to allow entry and exit. Although the extra artwork had been added in places the entire structure had been caves when all was said and done. The passages under the pyramid were a much more refined piece of work. It was built underneath the lawn that they had run across, and each passage seemed to be brick lined and properly floored.

Slowly the passage rose so that the water trapped in the central room didn't flood the entire maze of tunnels. Pretty soon after it dried out they came to the top of a flight of stairs which they descended.

The corridor twisted even more until they were completely lost as to which direction was north, and where they had come from. But as if to distract them from the confusing pathways they arrived at something new.

Facing them was an expansive open room, the steps leading down and the raised ceiling making it about four times higher than the passage they had followed. The ceiling was held up by round red brick columns, and pretty much every inch of flooring and surface space was covered in golden items. Light filtered down from somewhere above them, and from all the shiny reflective objects around them the room was almost unbearably bright.

"What is this?" Havok gasped.

"A storage area? Erik was the first down the stairs to look around.

"Of offerings you mean? The gods in the paintings had heads that would match the skull," Mystique said.

"These are from different eras though," Marion said as she walked closer to a table to inspect the items.

"What?" Charles walked up beside her.

"Look, that's an early Egyptian piece, that's from Sumatra, that's Babylonian," Marion pointed to a few different pieces. "Apart from the fact they're from across the globe, they also come from almost a millennium apart. True someone could have collected them and brought them here, but they look pristine like they were only just made when they were collected."

"So they collected this stuff?" Mutt stared at a few other pieces on the other side of the room.

"They aren't gods or conquerors, they are explorers or historians. They're just as interested in our history as we are," Marion smiled slightly. "Indy, look."

However the man in question seemed to have ignored all the pieces of gold and had headed straight through the room. They looked at him just in time to see him raise the skull to the top of an indent and press it against the stone. Grinding sounds emanated from the wall behind the spot where Indiana was standing. Slowly the wall pealed apart and the stone melted back into the walls, creating a thin tall gap through which they could walk.

Before they could argue or protest the decision, both Oxley and Indiana had walked through the gap and were gone. The other six hurried to catch up but almost tumbled into the pair on the other side of the tunnel.

The final room of the catacombs was a gold lined circular chamber. Every brick seemed to be made of gold and etched with detailing. The roof was the familiar red brick, and the floor a black stone, both again intricately carved. However none of them paid it much attention as there was much more interesting things to stare at.

Thirteen crystal skeletons sat upon huge delicate golden thrones, sitting motionless. The one directly opposite the doorway was headless and slumped forward as if dead. The structure of the bones was completely wrong for a human, as if the giant eight foot tall bodies and elongated skulls wasn't already enough of a hint to the fact what they were facing weren't human.

"Are they dead?" Havok whispered.

"I'd say yes, apart from the fact we've seen the skull can still inflict incredible damage," Charles murmured back.

"They aren't human, maybe this is their natural form," Marion added.

"Come on Oxley, or Indiana, finish the job," Mutt encouraged them.

The two stared at each other for a few seconds before Indiana moved forward with the skull again and offered it forward. He didn't attempt to place it on the spine of the alien though, and Mutt was about to speak again when the skull shot through the air as if pulled and rejoined with the body. Slowly the skeleton moved into a sitting position.

Nothing seemed to happen, then Oxley took a step closer and stared at the skull, then to Indiana. Mutt was watching him closely, and saw when the man started to blink rapidly and focus came back to his eyes.

"Oxley?" Mutt said cautiously.

"Hello again Mutt," Oxley smiled.

"Ox!" Mutt leapt forward and gave his old friend the tightest hug he dared. "Nice to have you back."

"It's nice to be back," Harold Oxley admitted. "It's been an unusual trip."

"And Indy?" Marion said as she hurried to the three men.

"Ah, he's not back quite yet," Oxley quickly glanced at the man in question.

"Why not?" Marion demanded.

"I expect They still want to talk to him, so they need to keep the connection a little while longer," Oxley hypothesized. "They've had a few months to talk to me."

"They?" Mutt looked between the skeletons warily.

"Well, it's hard to describe," Oxley searched for the right words. "They are a united mind, but in separate bodies... a collective conscious in multiple bodies."

Just then Indy started to speak calmly and fluently. But no one could understand him.

"What's he saying? Erik asked as the rest moved closer to better hear the words.

"It's Mayan," Oxley explained.

"You speak it too?" Havok said in surprise.

"I may not be fluent in as many languages as Jones but I learnt my fair share of South American dialects over the years," Harold said primly. "He's saying that It wants to give us a gift... A big gift."

"We don't want a gift," Mystique spoke first, surprising many in the group. "Just give us Indiana back how he was before."

"That would be good," Havok agreed, and the others nodded silently in agreement.

"Oh and perhaps give him the chance to explore Akator, he'd love it here," Marion added. "As you know, he loves his history like you do."

"The only thing is we cannot stay here long, there's still Spalko to deal with," Erik pointed out.

"She can't be allowed to get in here, she'd massacre everyone in the city on her hunt for power," Mutt said passionately.

"Alright, we get Indy sorted and then we go stop her," Marion agreed.

They turned back to Indiana and the skeleton patiently waiting for some kind of response, and now that he was separated from the skull's conscious Oxley was forced to watch and wait.

It felt like forever for the group of seven before anything happened.

Indiana passed out.

"Is this good or bad?" Mutt asked as they all crowded around him.

"He's still alive," Marion checked his pulse.

"It's likely that the change to his mental state would be so great it was safer for him to be released whilst unconscious," Oxley attempted to explain.

"But you didn't need that and you were in a worse state than he was," Charles argued.

"They knew my mind intimately, and they needed an interpreter," Harold quickly suggested.

"Either way, are we safe waiting here till he recovers?" Mutt looked warily around.

"Yes we'll be fine, they're not going anywhere," Harold quickly looked up.

"How can you tell?" Mystique asked.

"They're probably still cataloging us all, and it's been a few centuries since they've been able to work coherently. If I was them I'd want to take a while to recuperate," Harold gave a lopsided grin. "Plus the skulls aren't angry."

"Angry skulls?" Havok looked up this time.

"Didn't you guys pay attention," Mutt had to hide a smile at the lecturing tone that crept into Harold's voice. "There's a definite change in the aura round the skull when it's active, which is likely a tell for when we have to move now."

"I'm all for moving, this is one of the hardest floors I've ever tried to sleep on," a tired voice interrupted them.

"Indy!" multiple voices called out in joy.

"Morning," Indy grinned wryly as he tried to sit up and was promptly helped by a dozen hands. "Or is it afternoon. Evening?"

"Probably late afternoon by now," Marion guessed.

"Hey there you," Indiana said softly as his gaze locked with hers.

"Nice of you to finally be here Jones," she replied with a small smile.

"Not for want of trying," he replied. "That was one of the weirdest experiences of my life."

"Beating out the vengeful souls with Belloq?"

"Hundred times weirder," Jones chuckled.

"Not that this isn't lovely to watch, but can we get out of here now? I know these guys aren't feeling murderous but I'd rather not outstay our welcome," Mutt asked slightly forcefully.

"Sure thing, I know the way out," Indiana accepted Erik's hand for help and heaved himself upright. "But we need to sit down and catch up with each other soon, and make a plan for Spalko."

"How do you know the way out?" Charles asked.

"They let me know," Indiana turned and bowed to the central skeleton, the one who had had its head removed.

"So they're happy to let you go? They're not angry?" Mutt asked.

"Why wouldn't they be happy to let us go? They're eager to watch us and what we do," Indiana revealed.

"What?!"

"Well they do enjoy seeing our world. They saw a lot of what happened as we developed but they are sadly behind current events. So they're happy to watch us to learn more," Indiana explained.

"That's not creepy," Havok muttered.

"It could be worse, much worse," Jones clapped him on the back. "Now come on, we've a Russian camp to blow up."

"We get to see your level of destruction?" Havok immediately perked up.

"Yes, learn from the master," Indiana grinned.

As the two chattered away about the previous sabotage attempt, there was more than one person who rolled their eyes at the pair. Although only one had an indulgent smile to accompany it.


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N: Posted 13/07/2017.**

* * *

With the worst threat behind them the group moved at a much steadier pace back to the surface. Marion dragged Indiana around the treasure room and the pair listed every civilization they could. Whilst Marion's knowledge was impressive, Indiana managed to triple the list of places from his own knowledge base. The rest happily wandered around looking at items in the meantime until the pair were done. Oxley was almost as reluctant to leave, but apparently his interests were more on their surroundings than the golden treasures.

Their trousers had barely dried by the time they were wading back through the flooded central room once more, but this time Indy led them to a passageway almost directly across from the one they emerged from. The new one immediately started rising in the form of steps flanked by huge stone gears.

"What do these do I wonder?" Charles asked.

"They power the water pumps that feed the city with water. When Akator was built there was a small waterfall from the outside included. These force the water out from the plunge pool and through the aqueducts of the city," Indiana explained easily.

"So the gods did in fact care for the people here?" Mystique said happily.

"Yes, but probably not in the sense you are thinking. To them humans were just a science experiment, like an ant farm," Indiana said apologetically.

"Well they still helped the tribe above us," Mystique refused to be upset by the news.

At the top of the stairs there was a dead end.

"You sure you know the way old man?" Mutt joked easily.

"Pretty sure," Indiana said before disappearing into the wall.

"Hey!" Mutt dashed over to the spot.

"You did ask for it," Marion chuckled as she walked over. "Look, the wall is staggered so it looks solid. But behind there's a hidden passage. It was probably built as a last ditch attempt escape route, just in case. Castles often have them."

"Well it is a little obscure to be used for anything else," Mutt muttered bashfully in agreement.

The passageway led up to the surface in a windy steep route, and those of them keeping track knew that they were soon higher than the top of the pyramid they had ascended then descended. Eventually the faint glimmer of light above them gave them a boost of energy and they forged ahead into daylight.

"Look at it Marion," Indiana breathed as he looked down on Akator.

"It's beautiful isn't it? I'm glad you got to see it. You and Ox, I know you both obsessed over this as teens," Marion hugged him as they stared down.

"Those are crops, and the aqueducts... and houses? Those roads are almost Roman in style," Oxley was noting.

"They were millennia ahead of everyone else," Indiana agreed.

"But what I don't understand was the rumour of gold," Mutt piped up. "El Dorado has always been described as the city of gold."

"It's a classical failure of translation," Indiana explained. "What we often translate treasure into is gold, either through accident or assumption. But the Ugha word for treasure referred to knowledge. You can see how highly they prize intelligence and creative thinking in their day to day life."

"So, no gold?" Mutt sounded disappointed.

"Well, maybe not _no_ gold," Havok said with a sneaky grin.

"What did you do?" Charles said in a severe tone.

"Not much, but I felt we were deserving of a tiny bit of treasure," Havok pointed out.

And from his pocket he dug out a dozen or so golden coins. "They're Mayan and proof of what we did."

"True adventurers don't need proof, you get the memories," Indiana countered.

"Oh, well I'll toss yours over the cliff then?" Havok moved as if to do so.

"But seeing as you've already stolen them I suppose there can't be any harm in keeping them," the archaeologist quickly added.

"Thought so," Havok smirked and quickly handed out the coins, pocketing the spares for their friends.

"We should make camp here tonight," Indy said as he quickly glanced around.

"It's rather exposed," Mystique replied.

"Night's falling and we might not find somewhere as good as this before it's dark. The river is between us and Spalko's group which makes this another good place, and finally I have no idea how far Oxley and I could go before we crash anyway," Indiana admitted.

Marion knew that the man had never admitted weakness in the past, so either he had changed drastically or he was almost on his knees. A quick glance at his face told her that either of those options could be possible.

"You figure out a way of making camp, I'll go with a few people to get firewood," Marion decided for him.

Making camp was a whole lot easier with their most experienced group member taking part. Marion, Havok, Mystique, and Charles were only gone for half an hour before returning with a huge armful of wood each. They were greeted with the sight of the tarpaulin stretched tight between the high walls of the crumbling tower structure they had emerged into, with all their beds already laid out and the startings of a meal in progress.

"Whoever grabbed the meal packs managed to get a right mixture of ingredients," Indiana laughed as Marion perused his choices and wrinkled her nose at some of them.

"Well not many of us speak Russian," Mystique said defensively.

"No matter, I've worked with much worse don't worry," Indiana apologised with a dip of his head.

The meal he cobbled together was certainly interesting but palatable and much more filling than their last few meals where they had only hurriedly grabbed a pack each and started eating. With the stress of having to keep away from the Russians gone the entire group relaxed more than they had since leaving America. However, as he had admitted earlier, Oxley and Jones barely finished eating their food before they were nodding off. Despite that Indiana did put up a resistance when they told him to go to bed, wanting to help with lookout duty.

"Look Jones, we managed alright without you for a few days, we can go another night," Marion said in exasperation.

He caved under the familiar tirade that reminded him so much of past journeys with the woman. With a lopsided grin he huffed his acceptance and crawled under their shelter to his bed. Oxley went without an argument but they heard him chuckling as they argued. Soon all they could hear were heavy breaths of the two men who were out like a light.

"So, do we have a plan for the next few days?" Marion opened up after making sure the two were asleep.

"We'd probably do well to rest here for a couple of days, let Oxley and Indy get their strength back," Charles started.

"He's not going to like the idea of being coddled," Marion warned.

"If we are going to go into a fight he's going to be needed a full strength," Erik began. "I'm pretty sure once we explain our plan he'll agree."

"We can guess where Spalko is going to be, they should have returned to the main camp. The thing is the river is now between us," Havok pointed out.

"Rivers are easy, we can make a raft for that. What are your plans to face the Russians? There were about fifty in total?" Marion moved on.

"Now we don't have to worry about protecting the skull and beating them to Akator we can go on the offensive," Erik said.

"Do we really have to kill them all?" Charles sighed.

"If we leave any of them alive to get back to Russia there's a chance they'll just send more men. Plus if we take them down using our powers then we can't allow anyone to speak of what we can do," Erik replied regretfully. "Even if you somehow managed to wipe their memories and send them home, whoever sent them will just turn them around and send them back again. Again, leaving them without their memories in the jungle would be a death sentence, so the only merciful option is to take them all out."

"Talking of powers," Marion quickly turned to Charles. "How are those two doing?"

Charles quickly put a hand to his head and took a look into the minds of the two sleeping men. "Oxley is completely healed, I guess he is back to what he was like before. His memories are back in the right order which was part of the problem."

"And Indy?" Mutt asked warily.

"He's unconsciously shielding, which immediately is an improvement on what he was like yesterday as he couldn't consciously think about doing that. I could break in but he might sense me and that could end badly. Either way, we've all seen how much better he is," Charles removed his hand and turned his attention back to the group.

"So he could fight with you?" Marion asked.

"That's highly likely," Charles agreed.

"Good, he can have these back," Marion dug around in her pack and pulled out the bullwhip and gun.

"He would have killed us if we had forgotten those," Havok grinned as she carefully left them lying on the rock Indy had been using to sit on.

For the next hour the group chatted about their skills and created a rough plan on how to take down a much larger force. By the time they decided to join the other two asleep most of them were happy with the basic plan they had, and fell asleep feeling much more optimistic than they had been the last week.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

As a group they kept quiet and tried to avoid waking Harold and Henry the next day. However it seemed that the two had other plans, and at roughly ten in the morning they both emerged.

Indy blinked owlishly a couple of times before turning and looking at the sun. "Hmph, nice try Marion."

"You need your sleep," Marion said defensively.

"True, but we need to get moving too, even if it is just down to the river tonight," Indy sighed and accepted her decision.

"What's your plan?" Erik quickly checked as the man gratefully armed himself and started dismantling the shelter.

"Get to the river, possibly make a raft or more likely take the pathway back across, get back to the Russian camp and take down that threat, and also steal any of their remaining supplies to get back to civilization," Indy rattled off easily.

"The same plan we decided on last night," Havok added as he started rolling up their beds.

"It's the only plan we can really have, we are too far from humans to just walk away, and we aren't exactly in the best position for a long term adventure in the jungle," Indy pointed out.

"I for one would be quite happy to be out of this jungle as quick as possible and back home," Oxley chipped in as he emerged from the shelter with two bed packs rolled up ready.

So much sooner than they expected the eight of them were packed and headed back down to the river. They didn't spend too long debating making a raft as the cliffs on the other side caused a problem. Oxley seemed very well in tune with his memories as he easily navigated them back to the hidden path under the waterfall.

He then managed to lead them back to their camp two days ago where they settled down for the night again.

"How much do you two remember?" Mystique asked curiously.

"It's pretty jumbled for me, I can remember snatches of events but not the whole thing," Oxley said after a pause then he looked over to the other one who had been affected. "I remember Them talking to me and our conversations clearly."

"You two had conversations?" Mutt said in surprise.

"Not physical ones," Oxley clarified. "We were linked to and through the skull, so we had the opportunity to connect with each other at the same time."

"Oxley had the plan and the knowledge, but I had a slightly more reliable link to the outside world," Indiana explained whilst he worked to light the fire.

"You did almost wake up a couple of times, like when you helped Mutt out," Marion said.

"I kind of remember that, you were getting beaten up..." Indy said slowly. "But the rest is fuzzy. What happened?"

"You stopped them," Mystique said faintly.

"I take it not in a good way," Indiana saw her expression and sobered up. "How many?"

"Eight, at least" Marion supplied.

"I see," Indiana said shortly. "Sorry I did it in front of you."

"Not that you did it at all?" Charles asked sharply.

"I've long come to terms with the fact that in life or death situations there will be some who don't make it out alive," Indiana said heavily as he sat back from lighting the fire and watched the fledgling flames catch hold.

"Anyway, I think it'd be good if Charles can give you a check over, make sure everything is working well enough," Marion insisted.

"You know I'm fine," Indiana immediately went on the defensive.

"We're mostly sure, but if we are going into a fight we need to know for certain," Marion stared at him until he backed down.

"Fine," he huffed and moved so that he was sitting directly in front of Charles. "I take it you want this off?"

"Please," Charles nodded and Indiana grudgingly removed his fedora.

"Why?" Marion said shortly.

"One of our friends managed to build some kind of restrictor into the hat, it helps Indy keep his powers under control," Mystique explained.

The two telepaths had tuned out of the conversation though and were intently focussed on each other.

 _"Hey Charles,"_ Indiana immediately felt and located the consciousness of his mentor.

 _"That's something new, you weren't that good at finding me before,"_ Charles replied in surprise.

 _"It was the only way I could find my way to the outside, I had to learn to pay attention."_

 _"You also managed to listen for Akator,"_ Charles pointed out.

 _"So my concentration and attention to detail has improved."_

 _"There's more than that too, you feel more stable,"_ the seasoned telepath looked for the right words.

 _"How so?"_ the curious tone was obvious in Indy's words.

 _"Before there was an edge to your power, like you were trying to hold back a flood. Now it feels like you're making headway. If you were like any other mutant I'd say you were at the same level as a teenager, with your control starting to take over,"_ he explained

 _"Great, so we may be reaching a point where we can figure out what powers I am stuck with?"_ Charles physically smiled at the eager tone he heard.

 _"Probably, we can try and test some of it now but the more rigorous testing I'd rather leave until we get back home,"_ Charles cautioned him.

 _"That's not a bad idea, we don't really want to cause too much traceable damage out here,"_ Indiana agreed. _"So we're in agreement I'm not going to snap and accidentally blast anyone in the next couple of days?"_

 _"No, I think you are safe. And if you are up for it I wouldn't mind you leaving your hat off and seeing if you accidentally start broadcasting. We need to test the hypothesis that you've gained control."_

Indiana opened his eyes and sat back, a happy smile on his face.

"What's the verdict?" Mutt asked as he curiously watched the pair. It had been the first time he had seen them doing it and had been slightly confused.

"Charles has confidence in me that I'm not going to accidentally cause any problems for now," Indiana summarised.

"He's much more in control than before," Charles agreed.

"So you read minds too?" Mutt decided to fulfill his desire for answers.

"Not as well as Charles, but yes that is mostly what I can do," Indiana clarified.

He wasn't sure why, but Indiana saw Marion tense up at that admission. He didn't go prying for an answer, mostly because he knew Marion would never forgive the intrusion, but he did file away the information for later. The rest of the evening the other mutants who had seen his powers helped him try to coax out his other skills. By the time they were ready to tuck in for the night they had learned that he wasn't likely to set anything on fire, but his ability to randomly shift object still lingered.

They all settled down for the night, with Marion insisting she would take the first watch. As much as Indiana was dying to get more sleep the reaction he saw earlier had him staying awake trying to figure out the puzzle. Once he was sure the rest of the camp was asleep he quietly slid out of his bed, pulled his boots on, and silently stepped over the sleeping bodies to reach Marion by the river. She had taken up a watch spot in amongst the rocks, not easily visible and far enough from the fire that the light wouldn't ruin her night vision.

"You should be sleeping," the quiet words reached him before he managed to reach her.

"And there was me thinking I could sneak up on you," Indy said ruefully as he settled down next to her.

"You're getting old Jones," Marion chuckled.

"Isn't that the truth. I'm too old for this kind of horseplay. But then every time I try to have a normal life things get in the way," he sighed.

"You could have had a normal life twenty years ago," Marion reminded him.

"I know, and trust me I've regretted my actions every day for the last two decades," Indiana admitted. "I did try to stay but we both know I can't stay in one place for long."

"And? Remember I ended up running a bar in the Nepal for four years. I'm not against travelling too," Marion gently rapped him on the head with her knuckles. "You just would have had to remember to take me whenever you had to flee a country quickly."

"But I almost got you killed on a number of occasions," Indiana protested. "In Cairo I almost though about ending it when I thought you'd been killed in the truck."

"It's no worse than the messes I've gotten myself into in the past," Marion chuckled, then sobered up quickly. "Indy..."

"Sorry I abandoned you, but it looks like you had a good life after me," Indiana looked over to where her son was sleeping sprawled out by the fire.

"Colin was a good man," Marion said.

"Colin Williams? RAF pilot? He was a good man," Indy agreed, stamping out any feelings of jealousy or betrayal at his friend. He had been shot down halfway through the war.

"He wasn't Mutt's dad though," Marion said suddenly.

"He wasn't?" Indiana replied in surprise, his brain trying to do the maths.

"Henry was three months old when I met Colin, and he happily adopted Mutt like he was his own son."

"So that means..."

"His birth certificate reads Henry Jones the Third," Marion smiled uncertainly down to where Indiana was sat.

"He's mine?" Jones whispered, staring at the river as he tried to process the thought.

"I only discovered I was pregnant a month after we were supposed to be married," Marion gently spoke.

"I'm a dad?" Indy still seemed to be stuck on that thought.

"He's got your penchant for trouble and dangerous weapons," Marion chuckled.

"What weapons?" Indy said warily.

"Well he has his flick knife that he got somewhere, and the only subject he could focus on for more than ten minutes was fencing. He is very good with a sword," she listed. "But more on point he has your eyes, and nose."

"Your mouth though, and your quick wits," Indiana mused.

"He's a force of nature, undoubtedly ours. I don't think Colin would have known what hit him when Mutt hit his teens," Marion smiled.

"When we make it back home, would you mind me being in your lives, getting to know our son?" Indiana asked nervously.

"I'm more than happy for you to do so, but first we need to break it to Mutt," Marion admitted.

"He doesn't know?"

"I said I managed to get myself into just as awkward situations as you ever did Indy," she groaned.

"Oh this is not going to be fun," Jones sighed alongside her. "You're doing the explaining."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence Jones," Marion flicked his ear and they both chuckled.

From across the campfire Charles smiled at the reforming friendship, happy that he didn't have to carry that secret anymore.


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N: Posted 14/07/2017.**

* * *

"If we ever find them again," Spalko growled out under her breath as they stomped through the jungle.

Mac knew that the woman was talking to herself, and by speaking in English she was less likely to be understood by her men. It was a safer option rather than cursing in her native tongue, but it did mean he could understand every threat and vow of revenge she made.

There had been a few times when they had served together that Mac had seen Indy's brand of sabotage and tactics to hamper the enemy, but Mac never expected to be on the receiving end of such methods. He knew Indy was in no fit state to have planned this attack himself, but whoever had done it must have had lessons from the man.

When they woke up as a group the morning after it took them a few hours to figure out exactly what had happened to them. After realizing their prisoners were long gone with the skull they were going to set out after them, only to find half of their gear was missing. With no maps or compasses to help them it would have been suicide to attempt to follow them. So Spalko ordered them to drive back to the base for more equipment. Which was when they learnt their vehicles were useless.

And that was when Spalko started cursing, colourfully.

So all of them were forced to scrounge what supplies they could and they all marched back to base. Mac personally would have called it quits and would have gone home after that but he knew what was at stake, so he kept his thoughts to himself. Plus there was the thought of an entire city of gold that he had shares in when they found it, which would easily solve all his debts. He easily occupied himself with trying to keep up with the much fitter Russian soldiers so he rarely had spare breath to voice his opinions.

They were three days by car from base camp, although they had had to progress at a slow pace because of the monstrous felling machine had to clear their path. On foot, with the clear pathway leaving an easy trail to follow and traverse, they should have made good time getting back. However there was a string of problems that caused them to take longer than needed to get home. Part of it was caused by half of their equipment being missing, so setting up camp at night took longer than it should have. Without decent machetes to cut wood for supports or fires the soldiers were forced to scrounge what they could. Half their ration packs were gone, so food was limited. And their torches were gone, making leaving the fires a dangerous task. During the day the paths were ridiculously weathered and ankle deep mud, making walking even harder. Even the soldiers who were used to adverse conditions seemed surprised at how badly the path had degraded over a few short days.

It was late on the fourth day when they stumbled back into camp, much to the surprise of the ten soldiers who had been left to guard it. Soon though they were all leaping to complete Spalko's orders as her anger made itself apparent. Mac decided wisely to stay out of the way and slunk back to his tent and his secret stash of cigars and alcohol.

It sounded like the entire camp was abuzz trying to fix the problems they faced. Things like maps and navigation equipment would be easy, so would food. But figuring out how to get through the jungle quickly to catch up with their prisoners to find Akator would require them to move fast.

And then just as they were ready to leave their progress was hampered again. A bout of sickness hit the camp on their first second day back, leaving half the men in their beds and unfit to travel. So despite her eagerness to catch up with the skull and their prisoners Spalko was forced to wait for her men to recover. Which also gave her time to finish trying to figure out what exactly had caused them to all simultaneously fall unconscious.

Finally they had to go ahead from the medic on team that those that had been ill were suitably recovered to travel again. It was late afternoon by that point so Spalko conceded another night at base camp.

"Everyone is to be ready to leave at first light," she reminded Dovchenko forcefully. "Or they face courtmartial."

However their planning was all useless, as they were woken well before dawn.

The first sign they got that there was something wrong was the explosion of the scientific tent, containing all of Spalko's records and the remains they had stolen. In the chaos of the men staggering outside in various states of readiness the second attack happened. Men were mown down in lines as if hit by machine gun fire, however there was no retort of gunfire.

Extra confusion was sown when one of their own started to attack them, using sloppy but effective punches to lay out men. Then a few extra men joined in, making things worse.

Once most of the renegade men had been taken out the camp then had to face their true attackers. Five men appeared out of the gloom into the open area of the camp illuminated by the burning tent.

"Kill them!" Dovchenko screamed as he lead the charge in.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

"You sure this is the best plan?" Havok asked as he got ready to blast the tent that Marion had doused in gasoline.

"We can't beat them in a straight fight, we have to confuse them and use some underhanded techniques to even the odds," Indiana replied grimly.

"Fair enough, I'd recommend ducking just in case," Havok warned everyone as he stood fully and blasted the tent.

Erik had taken up position slightly further around the edge of the camp with a clearer line of sight into the middle, and was waiting with two clips of bullets hovering free behind his head. As soon as the disorientated soldiers appeared he let loose and took out a good portion of them in one fell swoop.

"Remember Mystique's in there," Indy called after a few minutes, and Erik stopped his onslaught.

It didn't take much for them to pick out the fake soldier from her sloppy punches.

"You guys really need lessons," Indy winced as he watched one blow barely have any effect on one of the Russian's.

"You offering?" Havok grinned.

"Later Havok," Charles said.

"Sorry," Havok turned his attention back to the fight.

Charles took his turn by making a few extra soldiers attack, giving Mystique a chance to slip out again. Her job, as well as sowing chaos inside, was to keep an eye out and give them warning if it looked like the tide was going to turn. Charles had argued against the idea, but Indiana pointed out if Spalko or Dovchenko came up with an idea they could easily be overwhelmed.

"Move round," Indiana hissed to Erik, who did so before opening fire again.

Then it was their turn to approach.

Charles, Mutt, and Havok had been armed with guns that Mystique had stolen straight away, giving them a small edge. Erik was ready with another clip of bullets, whilst Indy wielded his usual Webley.

 _"Don't think about it, now is not the time to be a conscientious objector. We'll talk about it later,"_ Indy's voice sounded in a few of their minds before they clashed with the Russians.

And then Indiana was gone, forging ahead into the fray and laying men out left and right. As he had pointed out to Banshee weeks ago his own gun ran out of bullets quickly, so he swiftly tucked it into its holster and grabbed a discarded gun to continue the fight.

Soon though he was removed from the main fight by the hulking form of the Russian Colonel.

"Morning, good to see you haven't got a rock again," Indy grinned.

Dovchenko didn't attempt to come up with an answer but instead aimed a fist at Indiana's head.

Having learnt the man's go-to tactics Jones was well prepared to duck and easily avoided the blow. In retaliation he surged forward and landed a couple of blows to his stomach as he sailed past the Russian.

Indiana could have ended the fight quickly with his powers, but he had been knocked out twice by the man, and their last proper fight had ended in a standstill. He didn't often allow his male pride to dictate his life, but whilst he could he wanted to allow the fight to continue to see who was the better fighter.

In the background he saw the others handling themselves well, with Erik easily keeping their side safe, so Indiana turned his concentration fully to the fight ahead.

The Russian had proper training, and the advantage of height, bulk, and being well rested. Indiana had cunning, experience of many brawls, and being smaller was a quicker target. So overall he felt his chances were even.

Having learned from his past mistakes Indiana made sure to stay as far away from Dovchenko's fists as possible, for fear of risking a knockout blow or being grabbed. So landing hits was difficult and he relied on dodging and spinning away as much as possible. The others left them to it, so there were few interruptions.

Despite his plan working well to start with, it soon became clear that the almost week of less than ideal living was taking its toll on Indy. Lack of sleep, bad food, and little exercise had reduced his reaction time and agility and soon he had received a number of heavy blows.

The fact that they both also kept tripping over bodies didn't help, as the other opponent quickly monopolized on those mistakes. It was one unfortunate blunder like that that had Indiana on his back with Dovchenko's steel toe capped boot whistling towards his face. That was the moment that Indiana decided to stop playing fair.

"What the-," Dovchenko grunted as his foot stopped moving in midair.

Indiana didn't reply but merely smiled, showing bloody teeth. As quick as he could he scrabbled backwards a couple of feet and latched his hands around a gun. Without hesitating he turned and fired straight at his stuck opponent, giving him a quick death.

With the hulking Russian officer dealt with Indiana turned his attention to the rest of the fighting. A few of his friends sported scrapes and blossoming bruises, but mostly looked unharmed. Most of the Russians were dead already, and Indiana suspected that they had Erik to thank for that. However he did see Havok taking down a couple of men, so he knew that there wasn't only one of them working on it. He couldn't see Charles, but Mystique was back in her true form causing chaos.

On the far side of the camp was a sight that caused Indiana to pause in fear. Mutt seemed to have had a rough time of it already if the scrapes to his knuckles were any indication. But he was wielding a heavy machete against Spalko, who was showing just how well trained she was with her rapier.

Indy swallowed his shout of alarm, knowing calling out would only distract his son and possibly kill him. So instead he fought his way over as quickly as he could. However it seemed that a mass of Russians thought they could claim their fame by killing him, so he had to fight and shoot a number of men on the way. He was just facing the last pair in his way when he saw Mutt stumble and fall.

"Mutt!" Indy shouted out, knowing that distracting him now wasn't going to change the outcome.

He watched, almost in slow motion as Spalko smiled icily and brought her rapier down in a slashing motion towards Mutt's throat. Without regard for his own surroundings Indiana threw out his hand and stopped her from completing her move.

Both of them stared in confusion at her failure and seemed to halt in their fight. Which was just as well as Indiana was immediately brought back to focussing on his own predicament as he felt a burning pain in his side. As quick as he could he blasted the two soldiers backwards and used his last two bullets on ending them. Without a backward glance he hurried forward towards Spalko who had decided to try again. This time though he put more force behind his effort and Spalko was knocked backwards a few steps.

"Not my son," Indiana snarled as he took up his position in the gap between Mutt on the floor and Spalko.

"Ah Doctor Jones, good to see you have recovered," she said conversationally.

"They helped me with that after your stunt," Indiana said shortly.

"They? You made it to Akator?" Spalko's eyes gleamed.

"Made it, returned the skull, and left. You're plan has failed as you cannot claim the skull," Indiana smiled.

"I can still find and conquer Akator. We will just take them all back to Russia and take control of their powers there," Irina sniffed.

"Apart from the fact that you have no idea where it is, and we are going to stop you," he snarled.

"Well, once I've finished what my men started with you, I'll just pry the truth from Oxley and your son," Spalko smiled.

Indiana lunged in before feinting back, tricking the woman into striking.

Whilst she was exposed he quickly twirled to the side and punched her in the ribs, weakening them. She retaliated by flicking her blade through the air and catching him deeply on the right arm. Both spun away and started circling warily. Indiana managed to spot something out the side of his gaze and made sure to angle himself accordingly.

"I'm curious as to how you managed to stop me back there," Spalko said.

"You've focussed all your research in the wrong area. Who needs to study the paranormal when we humans have much more interesting abilities," Indiana quickly rolled sideways and picked up his discarded rifle.

Spalko saw what he was doing, and fearing the worst she immediately started attacking. It only took a few blows for her to realise that the gun was empty and a cocky smile spread over her face. Intentionally she changed her tactics to move from aiming for his chest to going for awkward blows that were harder to block. By the time Indiana managed to gain some space she had hit him on the shoulder and leg, staining his clothes further with blood.

"There was nothing in your file about you having any special skills," she commented.

"Well they're still rather new," Indiana admitted. "But rather useful."

"When I get back to Russia I shall have to set up a team investigating people with such skills," she mused aloud.

"Which is why we are making sure you can't go back. Now Mutt!"

And with that the youth jumped back into the fray. Spalko had written him off as out of the fight so failed to notice how he repositioned himself so that her back was to him. Before she could fully turn to face him he had landed his blow and struck true.

Slowly the scientist fell to her knees and Mutt let go of the machete as it was pulled from his grasp.

"I'm sorry it had to end this way," Indiana said honestly to the dying woman, just in time before the light left her eyes.

"You alright there Mutt?" he turned to the youth to see how he was holding up with killing someone.

"What do you mean I'm your son?" Mutt said in a very confused tone.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

Mutt had had to swallow bile the first time he saw someone go down from one of his bullets. But as Indiana had said to them, now was not the time to worry about survival of others when their lives were at stake. He managed to take a few down with his gun before they clashed and he was forced to switch to fists. Although his mom had always insisted that his brawling in town were pointless, it taught him a few survival methods. However in those situations he had only aimed to make the others leave with bloody noses, but here he had to make sure they never got up again.

So he quickly pulled his blade out of his boot and started aiming for kidney shots or through the ribs, aiming for fatal blows. He wasn't doing badly himself, and was almost falling into a comfortable routine. Then he saw the woman.

He had thought that the sword she carried was ornamental, but when he saw her draw it that assumption went out the window.

Quickly he grabbed the machete that had been left by one of the tents and moved to engage her. He knew he wouldn't win, she probably had had much more training than he and she had a better weapon, but at least he could slow her down until someone came to help him out. It was better than her mowing down Havok or Mystique.

His attempt to save his friends looked like it would end very quickly, Spalko was incredibly good and she trounced him in less than a minute. When he thought his life was over she suddenly froze. Although on closer inspection it wasn't her, just the sword.

Mutt grinned and quickly looked around to see Indiana forging his way through the fighting to him. He wasn't faring much better, there was blood on his face and abdomen, but he was still fighting two men. Before he managed to get there though the woman was trying again to sever his head, only to be violently shoved backwards away from him.

"Not my son," was not the words that Mutt expected Indiana to speak, and for a few minutes he was frozen in shock.

Colin Williams had been his father... hadn't he? But Indy had spoken with such conviction a sliver of doubt entered Mutt's mind. He had seen how close his mom and Indy were, how much the man seemed to trust her even when he was lost. But his mom had never dissuaded him from believing Colin was his dad.

With confusion clouding his mind he didn't manage to help Jones out as he was injured further, but eventually he got his brain in gear and clambered to his feet. When the time was right he and the archaeologist moved at the same time and Spalko was out of the picture. Which was a good thing as all Mutt could think about was the billions of questions he had.

"What do you mean I'm your son?" He asked angrily.


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N: Posted 15/07/2017.**

* * *

"Can we maybe deal with this once we've finished off the Russians?" Indiana tried to divert the conversation away.

Mutt desperately wanted to argue, but the sound of shouting had them both looking over to the fray. He huffed and nodded, "it's not over."

Mutt dashed off to help Havok who was dealing with two at once, grabbing a gun on the way. He hadn't quite figured out the quick way of checking out how many bullets were left so he hoped that it was still loaded. As he headed to the fighting he quickly angled himself so that he wouldn't hit anyone by accident and opened fire. He felled three before he got a little too close for comfort and instead swapped to using it to bash people around the head.

It didn't take long for them to mop up the last of the soldiers, even when their fighting turned to desperation. Erik dropped the last man and only then did the few in the fight turn to look at each other.

"Anyone else want to hurl?" Mystique asked, and she did look a little grey.

"Maybe later, I want to get out of here first," Havok agreed.

"How is everyone?" Charles asked as he backed away from the pile of bodies.

"A few scrapes but I am good," Mutt nodded tiredly. "Fancy letting Mom know it's safe to come back?"

"On it," Charles quickly put his fingers to his head but immediately dropped them again. "She's already here."

"What? She knew the plan," Mutt scanned around for her.

"She must have had her reasons, this way," the telepath led the way and the five of them headed back from where Mutt had dashed in.

They got back to Spalko's body, and Havok whistled at the sight before clapping Mutt on the shoulder, "that must have been a fight."

"Indiana helped... where is he?" Mutt searched around.

It didn't take long for them to find signs, a large chunk had been ripped out of the door of one of the tents, a quick check inside revealed it to be too dark for anyone to be likely in there. But around the other side there were three people waiting.

"Indy!" Havok said as he dashed forwards.

"What's going on?" Mutt asked as he moved forwards.

"Sorry I couldn't keep up kid," Indy grinned ruefully and tried to sit upright but Marion whacked him on the head and forced him down again.

"If you move again I'm getting Charles to knock you out," she ordered and turned back to her work.

"What's going on?" Charles asked more forcefully.

"This idiot got himself shot and was in danger of bleeding out, so he called us," Marion explained. "If he had any sense he would have called sooner."

"Sorry I was a little busy trying to get to Mutt," Indiana grouched as he tried to look at what they were doing.

"Oxley is busy sorting out the other cuts where Spalko got a little happy with her rapier," she continued as she shoved Indiana's head down again.

"And he's definitely not as good at sewing as you," he winced at a rather forceful tug.

"I'm stopping the bleeding, that's better than nothing," came the cultured voice of Oxley as he worked.

"Have you got the bullet out yet?"

"No," Indy groaned as Marion dug in a bit further.

"I can help with that," Erik moved around to his side and put his hand over the wound.

They saw Indy judder slightly, and then Erik moved away and held out the offending item.

"Well that was easy," Marion said happily.

"For you maybe," Indy spat out.

"Oh quit whining, at least you don't have to worry about Sallah doing this, or having to rely on Captain Katanga finding you a medic," Marion started stitching the wound up. "We don't have anything to deal with major internal bleeding so hopefully it missed anything vital. You've got to keep it clean and dry."

"We have a second option," the man on his back said in a resigned tone.

"Seriously Jones?" Marion stared at him and stopped stitching.

"I've seen what happens to gunshot wounds that get infected, and there is no way we are going to be able to keep it clean enough over the next week until we make it out the jungle," he rubbed a rather dirty hand over his face tiredly.

"Alright," Marion squeezed his shoulder then looked up at the group. "We're going to need a clean knife. Can one of you look for a medical kit? If someone else gets just any knife as well in case they can't find one. Alcohol couldn't hurt, it'll either disinfect the equipment or it'll help with the pain. Something for bandaging will be good too. Can someone get a fire going just over there?"

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

"So..." Indiana said when the others had headed off looking for their objects.

"Spit it out Jones, it'll keep you occupied for a few minutes," Marion smirked at him.

"You know what we talked about a few nights ago? I may have accidentally let slip about it," he said vaguely.

"The fact that you walked out on your unborn son?" Oxley chipped in from down by his knee.

"Yes," Indiana sighed heavily. "And for the record I didn't know Ox. If I had I would have been back straight away. And it might be a bit late but I'm determined to be there for him now."

"We'll see about that," Indiana glared down at the bowed head of his once friend, but the tone Oxley used had been a bit more relaxed than before.

"Anyway, I may have accidentally let slip in front of Mutt," he waited for the inevitable explosion.

"How did that just slip out?!" Marion hissed, making sure to keep the volume low.

"She was going to stab him in the neck!" Indiana countered. "I kind of panicked and it just slipped out, I said 'not my son,' I think."

Although Marion did want to shout at him, the fact that he had slipped whilst defending the son he barely knew did make her anger abate slightly. "You do realise that is not going to be a fun conversation to have."

"We'll get over it when he decides he wants to talk, although hopefully not in five minutes," Indiana noticed people coming and quickly changed the subject. "Do either of you remember the way in?"

"They took a boat in to the lake, then vehicles to here. Hopefully there is at least one usable jeep or truck we can take to get to the lake. I think it was a commandeered boat so it might still be at the lake," Marion caught on and worked with him instead of arguing back.

"We'll search tomorrow, you'll need to rest today though," Erik insisted as he held out a couple of bottles.

"Or I could just drink those," Indiana grinned and reached for a bottle.

Marion gently smacked his hand away. "You'll still risk pulling stitches if you do."

"Well you're not as fun as when I met you. Which one of us was the one who won a drinking competition against a six foot bloke?"

"Definitely not you, you're terrible with your alcohol," Marion smirked with pride.

"Only compared to you," he turned to Erik. "Trust me, never ever try and win against her in a drinks challenge, she will wipe the floor with you."

Erik chuckled and stashed the bottles well out of arms reach to Indiana's dismay. The others quickly returned with their items and after ten minutes everything was ready. For privacy those not necessary moved away and the three that were left heard them discussing what to do about the camp.

"So, how do you do this exactly?" Marion only sounded unsure as the knife was in the flames.

"Seriously, only now you say you don't know what you're doing?" Indiana almost sat upright at that.

"Don't worry, I can do it," Oxley gently tapped her shoulder and she moved out the way.

"Just don't jab too deep," Indiana joked as Marion grabbed his hands. "That's not a good idea."

"Shut up Jones," Marion gripped his hands tighter so he couldn't let go.

"When we get back are you going to make an honest woman of Marion then?" Oxley asked.

"What the hell Oxley?"

"Oxley!"

Both of them reacted in surprise, which seemed to be what the older man was wanting. Whilst Indiana was distracted he brought the heated blade down.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

"That didn't sound nice," Mystique winced at the sound of screaming.

"It served the job," Erik said without turning round. "Now, the camp we can probably leave and nature will take care of it. But we need to bury the bodies."

"That's going to take days to dig enough holes," Mutt gazed around.

"One mass trench will do it, and I think we can cheat a bit," Erik tested his own theory.

"Graves?" Havok asked as he walked past and saw Erik manipulating a spade easily.

"We can't leave them," Erik insisted.

"Oh I agree, but there's a much easier way of doing it," Havok walked off to an open space away from the majority of the camp and looked down whilst stretching out.

There was a lot of noise and light as he burnt a huge trench in the soil, but once he ceased channeling the energy a huge gouge in the earth was left. "See? One trench."

"Show off," Erik dropped the shovel he had been using.

"Just because someone stole your thunder for once," Mystique laughed.

"We'll still need to dig the soil back over them," Havok patted the taller mutant on the shoulder in a consoling manner.

With all the soldiers wearing some kind of metal it didn't take Erik long to move everyone into the trench and then he set about filling the hole in. By the time he was done the camp looked a lot less grim, and the others had started making themselves more at home. Charles handed him a cup full of clean water and a plate of hot food.

"We seem to be moving in on the far side of the camp, there's the kitchen tent and Mutt and Mystique set about converting the mess tent to our quarters for the next few days. I don't know when we will be able to travel with Indiana so it's probably a good idea what they've done."

"Smart kids," Erik agreed. "They'd make good survival teachers at your school."

"We aren't going to teach the kids to fight," Charles insisted.

"Not that kind of survival, but camping skills and stuff. Extracurricular topics, the stuff fancy schools normally offer," Erik put his empty hand up in defence.

"Mutt still needs to officially finish school," Charles said with a thoughtful look on his face.

"And he might not be a mutant himself but he's had enough dealings with us and he doesn't seem afraid," Erik carried on that line of thought.

"We'll see when we get back home," the telepath nodded and lead the way to where the others were.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

Luck finally smiled on them when Mutt and Havok found the two jeeps, and after a little tinkering they sputtered into life. With plenty of room between them for more than the eight of them Indiana managed to argue their departure for the next day.

"I'll be lying down the entire time," he pointed out. "I won't have to move so I'll be resting just as effectively as if I was lying in this bed."

"Getting out of here is the safest idea, for all of us," Oxley agreed reluctantly.

"We leave tomorrow then," Marion and Charles agreed.

And when it came time to travel Oxley offered to drive one jeep whilst Marion, Mutt, and Indiana were in the back of it, whilst the others piled into the second jeep.

"So, what did you mean when you faced Spalko?" Mutt asked after they had been moving for about ten minutes.

"I meant what I said," Indiana said honestly.

"But Colin was my dad," Mutt protested and looked to Marion for support.

"Colin and I got together when you were three months old," Marion sighed. "He immediately fell in love with you and happily took you in as his own."

Mutt refused to look at either of them as he tried to wrap his head around it. A few times it looked like he was going to speak, only to huff and fall silent.

"How long were you going to keep this from me?" he asked in a barely controlled tone.

"In truth I never saw the need to bring it up, we were a good family and I never saw a need to ruin those happy memories," Marion admitted.

"Why now then?" Mutt snapped.

"Because of my telepathy, I may have accidentally found out at any time. Marion thought it was best to tell me now rather than me finding out at an inopportune time," Indiana defended her.

"Like when you have a sword to your throat?" the youth sneered at him.

"I can apparently be a bit impetuous and forgetful," his father apologized.

"A _bit_?" Marion snorted.

"Alright, very," Indiana huffed.

"Why did you leave?" Mutt quickly changed the subject.

"You've seen the kind of life I lead, I didn't want to risk your Mom in this kind of mess. And I thought she'd be better off not constantly worrying whether I would come back," Indiana admitted.

"Well you failed on that account," Marion chipped in.

"Hey this was Oxley's fault, not mine."

"I'm sorry Mutt," Marion gently squeezed the arm of her son.

"I didn't mean for you to find out that way, but I'm glad you know," Indiana said softly, all joking aside.

"Why?"

"Because it explains why I am going to be appearing a lot more in your life," Indiana stated, then quickly continued when it looked like Mutt was going to protest. "I'm not going to try and make you change everything you are to become what I wanted in a son, but I would like to know what kind of person you are. Colin did a fantastic job of raising you and I'm not going to try to take his place, but I have a right to get to know you."

"You had that chance over the last twenty years," Mutt shot back.

"And had I known that you had existed and that you were mine I would have been there like a shot. I can't undo the past, but I can try to work on the future," Indiana said evenly.

Mutt didn't reply but he did eventually nod in acceptance. Neither Marion or Indiana could hide their relief that the conversation went better than they had expected.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

Getting back into America was just as easy as getting out, thanks to Indiana's expertise in dealing with smugglers. Although Marion, Mutt, and Oxley initially wanted to head straight back to their own lives Indiana managed to convince them to meet the rest of his friends. With plenty of rooms spare in the mansion they were immediately settled in and ended up spending a week resting and blending in with the mutants.

Beast had been busy and had almost completed a new Cerebro in a small tower in the grounds so Charles and Erik threw themselves into planning a school. Although he debriefed the military on the Russian fiasco and was free to return to his old lecturing Indiana found himself hesitating.

"You know you would always be welcome here teaching some of our subjects," Charles' voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

"You really are serious about this school idea," Indiana turned to look at him.

"It's nice to know your control is stable, having secrets is refreshing," Charles smiled.

"We've got Them to thank for that," Indiana agreed. "But seriously?"

"There were hundreds of mutant children out there in America alone, fearing what was happening to them and what their families would think. If we could help them learn control then there is no reason that they can have a normal adult life. Having you on board would be invaluable both for teaching experience and support for students," Charles tried to convince him.

"I haven't work with young teens before," Indiana said with a hint of apprehension.

"Well there's always a first for everything. Plus who wants an easy life?" Charles smiled. "Think about it."

Indiana turned back to the window where he had been looking out onto the grounds. At the far end of the lawn the younger mansion occupants were roughhousing. Mutt, Havok, Banshee, and Darwin were all wrestling whilst Mystique and Angel laughed at them.

"If it helps your decision," Charles interrupted his contemplation once more. "Mutt's agreed to stay and teach engineering, on the condition he finishes his own studies."

* * *

 **A/N: Well I think that is as good a place as any to finish the story.**

 **I want to thank all of you who stuck with me and read this all, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. As always, double the thanks goes to anyone who followed or favourited or reviewed it too. Watching the numbers rock up does make writing all the more easier as you know that others out there appreciate your work!**


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